no boys allowed in the room!!!!

the estrogen is only in the pills to give you a period; it's the progesterone that's doing the actual work of preventing babbies.

as in you regret the bloating, cramps, moodiness, etc?

Oh hey. I should probably know this, but, you know how the leaflet is always v. keen to stress that the withdrawal bleed is not a real period, so don't panic that you're pregnant if you don't get one? Is the reverse true - is it possible (I mean, should be v unlikely if you've not been missing pills, but, possible) to be pregnant even if you've had a withdrawal bleed?

I skip withdrawal bleeds fairly often cz I get stomach pain/nausea/headaches on the week off, but I like the reassuring sense of blood = no babbies even if it isn't true, so I don't like to skip more than one in a row

is it possible...to be pregnant even if you've had a withdrawal bleed
heck yes it is. I've seen women 20 week along (that's halfway!!) with regular periods from their (almost) religious birth control pill use.

Oh great, a new thing to worry about! Well, thanks anyway, I've been wondering that for a while.

sorry to terrify you.

I've never had a pharmacy let me get only one pack at a time...that sounds like a pain in the ass.

Haha no, it's ok. It was not a question of immediate relevance (although, maybe...).

(xpost)

Do yourself a favor and never watch the show on TLC "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant".

sounds like it's more the insurance company's rule re: one pack at a time, right? you'd think it would be in their best interest to have you not pregnant and consuming costly prenatal care.

Do yourself a favor and never watch the show on TLC "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant".
does this show have it's own a thread yet? holy living god, this show.

Hahaha, have I discovered the one benefit of not having health insurance?

Actually, I just discovered I got state health insurance today for $0.00. Oh yeah.

x-post

It should, right?

Btw now that I've reminded myself that it exists I'm totally going to go and see if it's on On Demand.

I've met some women who experienced that and it still blows my mind. Like exactly how do you not know in at least some way that you have a PERSON GROWING INSIDE OF YOU!? I know it happens and there are many reasons but it's so hard to comprehend.

When I was in the midst of gaining puberty one of our close family friends would talk about the menstrual cycle as this beautiful thing that connects you with the universe and other women and that we are moon children and stuff so I don't know. Also this book I read once had a little part dealing with periods that made them sound totally sweet to have. This little boy was actually jealous of his friend for getting to have a period.

I know they have low estrogen cycle ones but can you get a 0 estrogen one? I could google I guess but I'm not actually going to start using bc again anytime soon so it doesn't really matter.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_birth-control-pills-the-minipill-progestin-only-pills_1472113.bc

omg awesome

i've never been on the pill because it just seems scary adding extra weird hormones and things like "withdrawal bleeding"

peacocks, Depo-Provera is also progestrone-only.

i was on and off the pill for a few years but came off it permanently not long after moving here - it really fucked with my head, and i could never remember to take it at the right time, and i was constantly paranoid that it wasn't actually working and that i could be pregnant at any time.

oh and also: as someone who has gone a year without getting a period, i can tell you that it's totally possible to not know you're pregnant.

and also: this happened to my husband's co-worker's gf (she's a pretty big lady, and despite doctor visits for certain 'issues' the dr never once gave her a pregnancy test). one day she started feeling really bad pains, rushed to hospital, an hour or two later there was babby!

I know it does happen it's just sort of mind blowing esp if someone was experiencing weird symptoms that pregnancy wouldn't cross their mind.

sounds like it's more the insurance company's rule re: one pack at a time, right? you'd think it would be in their best interest to have you not pregnant and consuming costly prenatal care.

That totally scares me about being preggers without knowing. Is it harmful to keep taking the pill if you're pregnant? I know they tell you not to in the instructions but if you don't know... :-S
Just had a bit of a weird situation with my brother and his gf. She apparently announced she was 4 months preg but had had a couple of negative preg tests. She went to the GP a couple of times (alone) who apparently told her there was another heartbeat (she had a 'bump' too). But at a later time he did a blood test and it was negative. And hadn't ever written in her notes that she was ever pregnant. They went for a scan and she was definitely not pregnant. She'd previously been in hospital for tons of tests for something unrelated and they'd been giving her all sorts of drugs. I'm completely at a loss as to what actually has happened, sounds like my brother is too (he's young and not exactly in tune with 'women's issues').

yeah the not realizing you're pregnant thing is up there with the waking up in an ice-filled bathtub minus vital organs thing ... it just seems like an urban legend

I mean I have BEEN on the pill and had weird symptoms and freaked out that I might accidentally be pregnant, never mind if I was using any other non-medical method and felt the smallest thing to be different/wrong.

i've never been on the pill because it just seems scary adding extra weird hormones

this is why I quit.

jees! I read an article in a seventeen mag when I was like 11 about a girl not knowing she was pregnant and giving birth in a toilet. I got a little nervous every time I went to the bathroom for a while after that (even though it would be impossible for me to be pregnant).

I find the pill great btw. Periods are lighter and less painful, plus you have control over when they arrive! Before my cycle was all over the place. I never forget to take them either. But I'm in the lucky position of kind of not minding too much if I get preg right now.

i was creeped out by the biblical story of the virgin birth at a relatively young age.

This sounds totally new agey bullshit but the one time I had a pregnancy scare, it was like just the slightest change clued me in. Just the teeny tiniest. It was so almost nothing, nothing but a very subtle change in discharge and a giant feeling of dread. It was just like I "knew." I knew and I thought, "oh fuck." I wasn't even yet to where my period would have been late.

NTRVP: well, they do say that a high number of young/first pregnancies are spontaneously aborted/miscarried before the women are even aware of them. It's possible, I guess, but probably not at 4 months wtf. Maybe drugs caused miscarriage somehow? Seems like someone isn't telling something, in that story, but maybe that's just cos it's third-hand on the internet.

you hippie.
xpost

It's awesome to not be on the pill anymore btw.

I mean I have BEEN on the pill and had weird symptoms and freaked out that I might accidentally be pregnant, never mind if I was using any other non-medical method and felt the smallest thing to be different/wrong.

― I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Friday, September 24, 2010 3:04 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This exactly.

Abbott - I had a friend who had a similar experience. She just knew.

Laurel, my thoughts too. It's all 3rd-hand even to me, via my mum and my bro. My mum's clued up on all this and has suspicions all over the place but isn't in a position to actually find out what's happened. In all the original tests, apparently no doctors mentioned the chance of pregnancy (presume this would be one of the first things they'd check for as well?) My brother (who was over the moon when he found she was expecting) just put the lack of any positive preg. test down to 'it's a sneaky little bugger'. That's when alarm bells started to go off for me.

That story aboout your brother's gf is strange. Is there any reason to think that she might have lied about being pregnant? Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it seems you might have been implying that and the events don't make much sense.

Sorry I hadn't seen your post.

They generally do run pregnancy tests on all sexually active women before most serious medical treatment as far as I know.

I've no idea whether she's been making it up or what - I've only met her once. It's more likely she and/or him are just really confused and haven't been asking any of the right questions.

Mentally running through list of pregnancy symptoms, kind of bummed at how many of them I experience at low levels every so often anyway - I imagine the real thing to be so many orders of magnitude worse that you just know, but, ugh, do not want to be one of the people who doesn't just know

another reason to renew efforts to lose some damn weight I guess, or try to stop putting it on so fast anyway ;_;

(weight gain ongoing for much longer than 9 months - not really a serious candidate for ILXor "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" here, unless it's an elephant or something)

I was creeped out by the biblical story of the virgin birth at a relatively young age.

in my case I think I was just educated poorly on sex and how my body worked.

my mom just said, "we've got a book about that somewhere, and uh, you can ask me if you don't understand anything"

I admit every couple months or so if me period isn't to-the-minute punctual I just do a pregnancy test. I keep a couple around for sanity's sake. $4 every couple months for not freaking out is worth it to me.

Except I left a finished preg test sitting in the bathroom once and my husband saw it a few hours later after the results faded...I was gone until 11 p.m. that day & he spent the whole day thinking I'd left it out to say "lol u have babby now." Poor dude!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! o man

omg ahahaha but also yeah, poor dude!

How many times did you have to apologize for that one??

haha - makes me want to leave notes for random people i know that just say - "lol u have babby now!"

It was one of those situations where I was like "I see why many people enjoy having a cell phone now."

Isn't there a thread about movie plots that only worked pre-cellphones? Add to list.

Oh man, that is terrible and yet hilarious. Sorry!

And $4 every couple months for not freaking out is worth it to me is probably OTM, just gotta suppress the instinct which kicks in when I look at them in the shop and goes "but if I get the $30 one and not the $4 one it will be... better, somehow?"

capitalism has me right where it wants me I guess

Like you're at the shelf and you somehow think that if only you buy the expensive "electronic" one and not the pharmacy's cheapest own brand one it somehow translates into less pregnancy for you.

That's why I am glad I saw they have preg tests at the dollar store – if I am buying a two-pack of the K-Mart brand ones I can say to myself "at least they're not the ones from the dollar store" with a total sneer in my imaginary voice in my mind.