need help figuring this out

[brogansmomma]

(I'm writing this after midnight and it's now Sunday morning but I've just come home from work so it's still Saturday for me. "Yesterday" means Friday.)

I've never posted here before but I have a question. A bit of background first. My boyfriend and I are both shiftworkers, living in our own houses (ie: not together), and each parent to one child (him a daughter, me a son). We don't get to see each other nearly often enough let alone "see" each other. I am on the pill Orthotricyclen (sp?) and have not missed a day. The weekend of Feb 27/Mar 1 we got to go away for the weekend and so because I would be finishing up my "period" that Sunday, I skipped my week of no pills and went straight into a new pack. I'm almost certain that is the last time we were physically together.

Fast forward to now. Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon through evening I've felt very slightly queasy. Just a faint underlying feeling of being slightly "off". I can't remember the last time I threw up but it has to have been several years ago. Even when I was pg with my son I only ever felt queasy once for about 90 seconds and then never again throughout the pg. Tonight as well I felt very warm. On any given day at any given time I am normally rather cold and can wear many layers without feeling anything beyond comfortable. Tonight, in just a long-sleeved t-shirt and cardigan, I was warm to the point of having that lovely sheen of sweat in the small of my back and being able to tell that my face was warm without physically touching it.

Does anyone here use (or have used) hormonal birth control and gotten pregnant? What are the odds of that (I know it's not foolproof) and would my symptoms be an indicator of that? It didn't even cross my mind yesterday but when I had the same queasiness this afternoon around the same time... I came upstairs after a nap with my son, smelled the eggs we had for lunch, and felt the faint queasies arrive.

I pee'd on one of those ept dollar test strips tonight and got a honking negative but a) I have no idea where I am in my cycle and b) it wasn't using FMU so I will pee again tomorrow and, if I feel queasy again tomorrow afternoon, will pee the following day as well. Hypothetically if I did get pg two weeks ago, should it not register a positive by now? I am rather embarrassed to admit that I'm not fully up to snuff on the inner workings of my body. I think maybe I should dig out my (unread) copy of TCOYF.

My son was unplanned and his father took off as soon as I told him I was pg. I have no fears that my boyfriend will take off (on the contrary) but this is not how I want to conceive another child.

I guess, after all that, my main question is how do I figure out where I am in my cycle. Periods on the pill are withdrawal bleeding, not an actual period (from what I understand) and the pill suppresses ovulation (or is supposed to) so no egg at all should make it to the uterus.

Help!

eta: I know it's long and rambling. Also forgot until a few minutes ago that awhile back, not sure when though, I felt something and at the time wondered if it was ovulation. Shouldn't happen on the pill but... I've never felt ovulation before that I know of and don't know if this was it. I felt it on my right side, a short series (maybe 4 or 5) little stabs, not a pain but a slight discomfort). Don't know if that makes any difference to the question.

Gah!! I feel so clueless! Dollar ept was neg again this morning with FMU.

[mamacatsbaby]

Leaving to go pick up DH but it may just be too early to tell when POAS. This happened to a good girlfriend of mine recently, happened to my sister a few years ago. Personally, I'd try a few more times, maybe wait a few days, maybe try a few different brands.

It's been years since I've done hormonal birth control so I don't remember failure rates or have any recent info about failure rates when on the pill off the top of my head. You still got the package insert? Of course there's always that sweet invention google .

GL! I'm so curious to know if you're gonna get a BFP : . Prolly my baby fever .

[brogansmomma]

Thank you for the reply, mamacat.

Ever since I've been on bc, my "period" has always shown up on Tuesday (usually in the morning it's there on waking up) or, only once or twice, on the Wednesday following the last pill taken on Saturday. Today is Tuesday, nearly midnight now so almost Wednesday, and I don't even have a hint of bleeding. I'm hoping I wake up bloody. I've been going to the bathroom frequently just so that I can check upon wiping and there's not even the faintest hint of colour. If AF isn't here tomorrow, I'll take a pg test again with FMU (if I have time, have to be up and out the door by 7:30 to head out of town for a couple hours).

Thank you for your thoughts. I honestly have no idea what to think or what the odds are.

[mamacatsbaby]

That's definitely one of my most vivid memories of being on the pill, the clockworkiness of the whole thing. Just like you AF would show up for me on a Tuesday (majority of the time to the hour : ) and an occassional Wednesday. I hope you get the outcome you desire .

[JMJ]

The odds of getting pregnant on the pill are pretty low. It might vary slightly depending on the pill that you are using, but most of them have less than a 1% chance per year (with perfect use) that ovulation, fertilization and implantation will all occur and a 99% chance that one or more of those will be prevented. That said, I do know people who have gotten pregnant on the pill. I've heard a statistic that in most of the modern pills, the doses of the hormones have been reduced enough to keep people from getting sick, and they only prevent ovulation in about 75% of cases. They are still 99% effective, though, because they can also prevent fertilization and implantation.

If you think that you might be pregnant, stop taking the pills if you haven't already. I know they say that the pills will not cause you to miscarry, but all the same, I can't imagine that artificial hormones are that good for a developing child.

Artificial hormones can do strange things to your body and your fertility signs. Your abnormal symptoms could just be caused by the fact that you took 2 cycles of of birth control in a row. The fertility signs explained in TCOYF are caused by the hormones in your system. If you still have artificial hormones in your system, they may be affecting your fertility signs, so I'm not sure you can really trust fertility signs to tell you where you are unless you have been off HBC for a few months.

Also, it is very difficult to just jump in the middle of any cycle and know where you are without previous experience. Your temperature would be lower before you ovulate and higher after you ovulate, but unless you know what "lower" and "higher" are for you, you can't just start taking your temperature and know.

In a normal cycle, sperm can only live for up to about 5 days, 7 max, before ovulation. Then, most pregnancy tests will show a BFP by 14 dpo. Therefore, if you DTD on March 1, then ovulated on March 8 at the latest, you could be pregnant, and a test would probably show positive by March 22. If you ovulated before March 8, your likelihood of being pregnant goes up slightly, and a pregnancy test would show up positive earlier. If you ovulated after March 8 or did not actually ovulate, then I can't see any way that you could be pregnant.

If I were you, I would keep trying pregnancy tests with FMU at least every other day (if I could stand to skip every other day) until March 22, and then if I still had no period and no BFP, I would go in for a blood test. Some people's pregnancies just don't show up on the urine tests. If the blood test is negative, you can probably safely assume that you are not pregnant, and that this all is just your HBC messing with your hormones.

I hope that helps and was not too confusing. Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

[brogansmomma]

I finally bled this morning (a day late) but changing my cup for the first time this evening there didn't seem to be very much in there and it looked dark/brownish to me. I don't know what's going on. I'm leaning towards NOT pg because that is the outcome I want. As I mentioned previously, I do not want to have another unwed, unplanned pg despite the fact that my boyfriend and I plan to marry and spend the rest of our lives together. I just have too many negative memories about my previous pg and its surrounding circumstances.

Ept this morning was negative again. I may see how the rest of the bleed goes but google tells me that since a bc period is only withdrawal bleeding, it is possible to bleed even while pregnant on the pill. I will test again on Friday and if it's negative, will buy a different brand of test (mine are all the dollar strips) and test on Monday and whatever the result is then will be the end of it. I just don't have a definite feeling one way or the other if I were to go with my gut at this point.

[Manessa]

[QUOTE=brogansmomma;13367618
Does anyone here use (or have used) hormonal birth control and gotten pregnant? [QUOTE]

Me. That being said, the failure rate on the bcp is very low. I didn't take my pills as well as I should have. I think that you should be able to know whether you are pregnant or not about 14 days after the last time you "saw" each other.