1:28 am - 05/24/2012
spotting after sex, HBC questions, and the wonders of ovulation!
Hey VPers, I have a few questions that are not exactly related to one another. :)
1) I had sort of rough PIV sex with boyfriend this morning and when I peed (both right after & several hours after) I had spotted a bit. The first time i peed it was a few drops of bright red blood and when I just went now, it was a tiny bit of red blood mixed with a bit of pinkish mucus. I'm guessing (hoping) that this is nothing. I now suspect I might have a yeast infection (I've been pretty itchy and a bit raw down there) and that is maybe the cause of the spotting. I just want some reassurance, as this has never happened before. (Also, in case it's relevant, I am 2 pills away from being on my placebo pack. I usually start my withdrawal bleed on Day 3 of the placebos.)
2) I don't have any more refills for my BC pills and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get an appointment with my doctor before I run out of this pack. In case she doesn't give me a refill over the phone, should I be concerned about any sex I've had recently? We use withdrawal as a backup pretty successfully and I plan to start using condoms now. I just want to be sure that any potential sperm in me from the past week will be well dead by the time my ovaries wake up. :)
3) Do I actually have to take the placebo pills? I don't need them to remind me to start a new pack and always assumed that's all they were meant for. But I (foolishly) googled that question and the results made me nervous, as I've never taken the placebos. (I'm on Ortho tri-cyclen.)
4) This is more a curiosity question than a I-need-help-please question. Last month, for various reasons, I extended my placebo week by about 2 weeks. (I wasn't sexually active during that pack at all.) I got egg-white discharge during the second week off the pills. I know I can't know for certain that I ovulated without taking temps, but does the discharge mean I probably did? (I've been on HBC for so many years, I can't remember what ovulating is like!) Also, this (hopefully!) is not relevant to me, but can a person ovulate while already pregnant? My sister (who is 5 months pregnant) heard some story about a woman ovulating during pregnancy and conceiving another baby, so she simultaneously carried two babies conceived at different times. Is this possible??
I'm sorry for always asking so many questions! Every time I search for answers on my own I come across so many contradictory responses and so many "Whelp, you're probably pregnant!"s that I'm left more worried than when I began. I trust everyone here so much more.
1) I had sort of rough PIV sex with boyfriend this morning and when I peed (both right after & several hours after) I had spotted a bit. The first time i peed it was a few drops of bright red blood and when I just went now, it was a tiny bit of red blood mixed with a bit of pinkish mucus. I'm guessing (hoping) that this is nothing. I now suspect I might have a yeast infection (I've been pretty itchy and a bit raw down there) and that is maybe the cause of the spotting. I just want some reassurance, as this has never happened before. (Also, in case it's relevant, I am 2 pills away from being on my placebo pack. I usually start my withdrawal bleed on Day 3 of the placebos.)
2) I don't have any more refills for my BC pills and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get an appointment with my doctor before I run out of this pack. In case she doesn't give me a refill over the phone, should I be concerned about any sex I've had recently? We use withdrawal as a backup pretty successfully and I plan to start using condoms now. I just want to be sure that any potential sperm in me from the past week will be well dead by the time my ovaries wake up. :)
3) Do I actually have to take the placebo pills? I don't need them to remind me to start a new pack and always assumed that's all they were meant for. But I (foolishly) googled that question and the results made me nervous, as I've never taken the placebos. (I'm on Ortho tri-cyclen.)
4) This is more a curiosity question than a I-need-help-please question. Last month, for various reasons, I extended my placebo week by about 2 weeks. (I wasn't sexually active during that pack at all.) I got egg-white discharge during the second week off the pills. I know I can't know for certain that I ovulated without taking temps, but does the discharge mean I probably did? (I've been on HBC for so many years, I can't remember what ovulating is like!) Also, this (hopefully!) is not relevant to me, but can a person ovulate while already pregnant? My sister (who is 5 months pregnant) heard some story about a woman ovulating during pregnancy and conceiving another baby, so she simultaneously carried two babies conceived at different times. Is this possible??
I'm sorry for always asking so many questions! Every time I search for answers on my own I come across so many contradictory responses and so many "Whelp, you're probably pregnant!"s that I'm left more worried than when I began. I trust everyone here so much more.
2. If you have PIV towards the end of the placebo week, you might want to start using condoms then
3. No :) They are there just to keep you in the habit of taking a pill every day at the same time
If you extended your week off then you should not have sex without a condom for the second week you extended it by AND the first 7 seven days of your regular pill packet to build up your pregnancy protection again (just like as if you had just started the pill for the first time)
I have heard of a woman in india who had a split uterus that enabled her to get pregnant whilst pregnant, but i'm not sure about it happening to those without a split uterus. You can ovulate more than one egg a month (as in the case of non-identical twins) but not sure about it happening once the body is already pregnant.
2: You're probably fine for the most recent sex, but I'd start using backup contraception now.
3: Generally, placebo pills are just reminders. Some brands have iron in them (since when one is bleeding, one could often use iron), and some brands have a little hormone in them -- not enough to count for pregnancy protection (though it probably doesn't hurt), but enough to cushion the drop in hormones for people who have physical/emotional effects during the hormone drops.
4a: If you had the egg-white discharge, it would probably be a good assumption that you'd ovulated, yeah. On the other hand, I wouldn't assume you had ovulated and were therefore not going to do it again, either, if you hadn't been temping. (Remember that pregnancy protection does not resume till after you've taken 7 pills of the new pack, etc., etc. Which you probably knew, but just in case this comment gets read by anyone who doesn't.)
4b: It may be possible to ovulate while pregnant (considering that it takes several days for a fertilized egg to get to the uterus and implant, I don't think a day or five "counts" as "pregnant" here), but it makes the news because it is really, really, really, reallllllllly rare. Like, if you wind up with that situation, go to the newspaper and tell your story and ask for donations if you need them, 'cause it's rare.