Can You Get Pregnant On Your Period

Men will never understand that pregnancy is no joke and so women will always keep asking if one can get pregnant on your period, no matter how much time passes and how technologically and scientifically advanced this field of science gets. Can you get pregnant on your period? Can pregnancy occur during menstruation? Can you get pregnant on last day of your period? and Can you get pregnant right after your period? are questions that will never lack answers nor readers. This article explores the question can you get pregnant when you are on your period.

I know everyone wants a straight forward answer to the question 'can you get pregnant on your period' but unfortunately there is none. Everyone you ask will tell you just one thing, it is likely but it is extremely rare. You see, all women are different and so are their cycles. Some have short periods while some have long ones, some have absolutely no problems with theirs while others suffer excruciating pain and other problems during theirs and most importantly, some ovulate just before, some during and some after. All of this makes it a very complicated probabilistic study of whether a particular woman can get pregnant during her menstruation and if yes what are the probabilities. As most of us women (at least the 21st century ones) want to choose when to have a baby, such an answer seems like a bad joke that God has played on us, but let us understand why this is so first. Know more on the odds of getting pregnant.

Ovulation not Menstruation
It is ovulation not menstruation that is the problem here. Ovulation is said to occur when the ovaries release one egg into the fallopian tube. If this egg is fertilized immediately (within 24 hours), the result is a pregnancy. If it is not, the unfertilized egg and the wall lining of the uterus shed in a monthly discharge called menstruation or periods. Pregnancy is thus not related to the menstruation but is actually contingent on the timing of ovulation. A woman may fall pregnant during her period not because she is the freak that underwent a rare conception but just because her ovulation cycle does not correspond with her menstruation. She has either released her egg during the first few days of her period (when she thought she was safe but was obviously not) or just after her periods ended (because she usually has a very short menstrual discharge). It may also be that she has confused some other bleeding and spotting with her periods and she got pregnant because it was not menstruation at all. Even this is rare as there is hardly a woman out there who doesn't recognize the difference between her period and spotting, but it does happen occasionally to those that routinely have a smaller discharge. A recap on the above paragraph, menstruation and ovulation are two different stages in a woman's monthly cycle and complications of pregnancy during periods can occur in cases where both of them do not coincide on the timing part. Know more on spotting in early pregnancy and spotting during early pregnancy.

Pregnancy During Menstruation
I reiterate again, that pregnancy during menstruation is very rare, but one can fall pregnant while on periods, especially in the following cases.

• A woman can fall pregnant right after menstruation if her menstruation cycle is too short and she ovulates after it ends. Even with really long menstrual cycles, there is a risk of pregnancy during periods, because the woman could still be bleeding long after her actual menstruation has passed and her actual ovulation is taking place.
• The culprit may not be the woman if indeed she falls pregnant while menstruating. A male's sperm can survive within a woman's body for quite a few days. Even after your periods end, the sperm could be alive and kicking and just waiting to impregnate an egg when your ovulation starts. If a woman has periods that end just a few days before her ovulation she may be in trouble, for the darn sperms can live up to 6 to 7 days.
• Last but not the least, if vaginal bleeding is confused with periods, the woman can get pregnant even during menstruation. Vaginal bleeding sometimes occurs as spotting when a woman ovulates. If this spotting is misinterpreted as said above, there is a high chance of the woman getting pregnant.

Another very common question asked by a lot of woman is can you be pregnant and still have a period. The answer to this one is fairly easy and it is an emphatic no. Once the woman's body starts producing the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) hormone and pregnancy is established, the menstrual cycle and thus, bleeding must stop completely. But many times, woman confuse bleeding and spotting after pregnancy to be menstruation when it is not. Sometimes bleeding may occur during the implantation of a fertilized egg onto the uterus walls, also known as implantation bleeding, but this is most definitely not menstruation.

I hope I have sufficiently addressed the query, can you get pregnant on your period, and also the other queries raised in the introduction of the article. I also hope that no woman ever gets pregnant without her knowledge, choice and preparedness. She deserves that, we all do.