Spotting a Week after Period Ends

Menstrual cycle may go haywire due to various reasons. In fact, menstrual problems are becoming even more rampant these days. Stress, hectic lifestyle contributes a great deal to such problems. As a result, women experience irregular cycles, cycles of varying durations and abnormal bleeding at any point of time during a cycle. Although, the symptoms of these problems may differ a little, the root causes often remain the same. Bleeding after period is one such common problem experienced by many women.

Spotting a Week after Period Ends: What Does it Imply

A regular menstrual cycle of 28 to 32 days with 3 to 5 days of bleeding is generally considered as a healthy sign. However, slight variations from this are also considered perfectly normal. As long as your body sticks to a uniform length and pattern of menstrual cycle, you have no reason to worry. Problems such as abnormal bleeding, untimely spotting are often an indication that something abnormal is going on inside your body. This could be due to malfunctioning of your own endocrine system, which results in hormonal imbalance or it may be a reaction to an external trigger. Whatever the problem is, you sure need to get to its root and treat it.

When you say spotting, you are only speaking about light bleeding, which stays for a few hours to a couple of days at the most. Spotting after you have had your period could be due to any of the following causes.

Old Blood
If you experience brown discharge a week or two after your period has ended, then it is often an indication that your body did not expel the menstrual blood properly. Some amount of tissue could still be present inside your uterus, which needs to be expelled out. This is usually done a week or two after your period.

Birth Control Pills
Birth control pills can play havoc with your hormonal balance. As these pills are essentially loaded with female hormones, they can easily disrupt the normal functioning of your body. Your body is not used to such high doses of hormones. As a result, it reacts by bleeding or spotting at unexpected time. Birth control pills may also disturb your menstrual cycle by preponing or delaying it. Your body may take some time to get used to higher levels of hormones.

Infection
Infections are usually not the cause of spotting after period, but they may contribute to abnormal bleeding or discharge, which may be difficult to tell from spotting. Yeast infections (Candida albicans) and bacterial infections (bacterial vaginosis) are some common infections which plague women. Infections often lead to weird colored discharge with foul smell.

Deeper Penetration During Intercourse
Rough or vigorous sexual intercourse may also cause spotting after period. Deeper penetration bruises the cervix and may sometimes cause physical injury. This leads to very light spotting which is often accompanied with pain.

Unregulated Menstrual Cycle
Untimely spotting is very common in teenage girls as their bodies haven't yet adjusted to menstrual hormones. It may take them several months to years to get into a routine menstrual pattern. Until then, such incidences of spotting can be considered as normal.

Polyps
Polyps are benign cellular growths inside the uterus, which often go unnoticed. Occasionally, some of them may rupture causing bleeding or spotting.

Many women wrongly assume they are pregnant when they see light spotting after period. This is not to be mistaken with implantation spotting which typically occurs a week before your period and not after it! There is no way you could be pregnant in just a week after your period has ended. Pregnancy is only possible after you have ovulated and had a successful fertilization. As you do not ovulate any sooner than 10 days after your period, your chances of conception are almost nonexistent. Also, this condition cannot stem from early miscarriage, as it is mostly characterized by heavy bleeding and cramps.

Spotting after period can be considered as a normal phenomenon only if it occurs once or twice. Recurrent incidences must be reported to a doctor. In that case, your doctor may perform certain tests to diagnose your condition.