Stuff Mom Never Told You

If you're a lady or are interested in lady issues, you should check out the fabulous podcast from HowStuffWorks called Stuff Mom Never Told You.

The podcast is full of awesome information on everything from nuns to kegels, smoking to subliminal ovulation. One of their latest podcasts explores the phenomenon of unknowingly being pregnant.

The ladies address the horror they imagine at such a discovery (as most of us would, and some of us have), and they also get to the heart of the issue. They wrap up their podcast with these points:

Sometimes we’ll hear things like an irregular cycle is normal, or feeling awful around the time of your period is normal, or just feeling awful in general, it’s hormones. People are quick to write off women’s health problems. And women are less likely to take time out of their day to go to the doctor and find out what’s going on… I think the lesson here is to take some time for yourself… Going to the doctor regularly, checking in on your sexual health with yourself, what’s going on here?

Exactly!

As I've shared my own experience with other women, their reactions have revealed all sorts of misconceptions about their own reproductive health and ways in which we women don't always spend the time with our bodies we should.

I've heard so many anecdotes. One girl friend has been fighting monthly yeast infections for two years to no avail; Another friend is facing entometriosis and taking hormonal birth control for the first time to manage it but having terrible side effects from the birth control; Yet another friend had an abortion after going off birth control because she thought you didn't became fertile again until after your period, when in fact you will first ovulate and then have your period.

What we don't know, or assume, or accept from our doctors, is often short shift of what we deserve. There's no reason to accept a shitty health situation as normal, and I hope that podcasts like this one help women see that. It's exactly the kind of by women and for women media that helps inform and connect us.

Oh. Hey there, Monthly Visitor.

How about that? I got my period!

It's strange and awesome to get a period again, especially when I haven't seen one in four months.

Way back in September, when I switched to the three-month cycle on oral birth control, I hated that I felt out of touch with my body. I actually missed my period. As relieved as I was that the three-month cycle solved other problems for me, I would never do it again. Ahem...

**Soap Box Alert! If you are taking Seasonale, or simply taking monophasic pills three months at a time like I was, please consider keeping pregnancy tests on hand just to check in with your body every month or six weeks or so. If you can avoid a pregnancy progressing for a full three months and just have peace of mind that you're not knocked up, believe me, IT'S WORTH IT.**

It's quite possible that all those crazy emotions I wrote about yesterday were partly/mostly related to a wild bout of PMS. I have never PMS'd before, so I'm not familiar with how I might feel if I were experiencing it. Physically, I'm much crampier than normal too.

I have an appointment with my OB/GYNE tomorrow, which I am so ridiculously psyched about. We had discussed the possibility of inserting the Mirena tomorrow. She told me at our last appointment that the best time to insert the Mirena is immediately following or toward end of menstruation as the cervix is softest then. Since I just started my period, I'm not sure that will be possible.

Can I get pregnant while on my period?

YES.

Yes you can, I am here to tell you because I did get pregnant while on my period... after taking birth control regularly for 5 years.

My former OB/GYNE told me at my first ultrasound that the odds of getting pregnant on birth control, during your period, are 1 in 1000... hence the blog name.

But I visited my new and awesome gynecologist earlier this week, and she gave me some different odds after we pulled out her contraceptive efficacy chart: 2 in 1000.

I tried to visualize what I might look like. I pictured one thousand women standing in some beautiful pastoral field, and there's me and some other girl practically bursting with pregnancy like the two omens we are of "perfect" birth control use.

Since I'm not about to rally that picture into existence, here's an infographic I threw together:

CRAZY, RIGHT?

You can't help but feel cheated when you've been "responsible" but still wound up knocked up when you look at that chart.

And it's not like I've always been perfect about birth control. Unlike a few of my friends, I didn't set timers on my phone to take the pill at the exact same time each day. But particularly in the last year or more, given my very active sex life with my boyfriend (we are crazy about each other), I have been diligent. So that image is killer.

I am posting this because I remember asking that question myself years ago and hearing that the chances were so slim, so unlikely. I remember my best girl friend, the only friend I've told about my planned abortion, telling me that it could happen years ago.

So if you're like me and have an awesome boyfriend who still loves sex during that special time of the month, and you've maybe wondered about your chances of getting pregnant are, here I am to tell you.

Just imagine me, one of those hot pink, knocked up ladies up there warning you: Yes, you can get pregnant on your period. So please be careful, take extra precautions, and know that just because your odds are good does not mean that they will work in your favor.