Pregnancy and your period – how does it work?
When you’re young and your period is still irregular, you can ovulate at pretty much any time.
This means you can get pregnant at pretty much any time, too. Including when you’re on your period. This isn’t common, but it does happen.
Once you’ve done a pregnancy test and it’s positive, however, can you then have your period and still be pregnant? Well yes, in a sense – or so it may seem. At the beginning of a pregnancy, you can get some bleeding or ‘spotting’ – often at the time you would normally have your next period. This is not the same thing as menstruation, however. It is actually implantation bleeding, and it happens when an embryo buries itself into the wall of your womb. Of course, if you don’t know you’re pregnant, this bleeding can be misinterpreted as a period, as it can look and seem confusingly similar.
Actual periods do not occur throughout your pregnancy. That’s because when you become pregnant the womb retains its lining to support the baby, rather than shedding it as it does when the egg remains unfertilized. Any spotting you do have while pregnant, should be checked out by your doctor or gynaecologist, as it could be a sign of other issues. While it doesn’t always mean there’s a problem, it definitely needs to be looked into.
If your period is late and you’ve had sexual intercourse it could mean that you’re pregnant, even if you’ve used birth control. No birth control is 100% effective. To find out for sure, take a pregnancy test, which you can get without a prescription from a pharmacy. You can take the test any time from the first expected day of your period.
Medical disclaimer
The medical information in this article is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. Please consult your doctor for guidance about a specific medical condition.
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