curious

[melena]

I am now starting my 2nd week of being late.  I have alot of pregnancy signs, like cramping...I started cramping Jan 5th (this is the 1st month off pill)  and I am not usually late the 1st month. I have never stopped cramping since, and it is a little worse now..but not worse than b4 I start my period.  I have achy boobs and my nipples are stinging like milk dropping, and I have had sev negative pregnancy tests..but I am unclear when I actually ovulated..So I cld be as little as 10 days past implantation.  Does anyone know what I need to do or if I cld be pregnant. I have had 2 pregnancies, and I am  42., and I so feel pregnant, my boobs never did the stingy thing that I can remember,but it has been almost 12 yrs since I had my last baby.  but everything else is normal as far as cramping.  But I can't remember ever taking a test b4 being 3 weeks late... 

[Jaimee]

Welcome to MDC!! 

You mentioned that this your first cycle off the pill and that you're not usually late the first month?  Does that mean you've been on and off the pill before?  Regulating off the pill can take quite a while and wouldn't necessarily be the same each time you do it.  Many thing can affect how quickly you recover from a hormonal event like being on the pill.  It would be my first guess that ovulation was late, therefore pushing AF late.  Some women don't ovulate at all for a few cycles, but will have breakthrough bleeding that mimic periods.  During this time your hormones can fluctuate quite a bit, causing a lot of symptoms that are pregnancy-like.  Also, you mentioned you're 42, at this point your body may be pre-menopausal as well, messing with your hormones further.

If you are indeed 10 days past implantation, you should get an accurate result from an HPT.  But implantation has a 6 day window, from 6-12DPO.  So if you don't know when you O'd, it would be more difficult to determine when implantation may have occurred.  Do you recall days of fertile cervical fluid- creamy or eggwhite in consistency?  This could help us guess better.  Otherwise, I would assume late O or no O at all and just wait for your first bleed.

To help clear up the mystery of what's happening in your body, I highly recommend starting to chart your basal body temperature and cervical fluid.  This will tell you when you are fertile, if/when you O, how long your luteal phase is, when to test, when to expect AF, if you're pregnant and if anything of concern is happening with your cycle.  If you'd like help getting going with charting, just post!