Periods and Pregnancy: Yes You Can!

Two related questions:

How can one have sex without getting pregnant?– is it by birth control pills or what?  I am a little bit confused  about this.

well, if a girl has finished menstruating at the end of a cycle and recently had  sex without using a condom can she get pregnant?

Response from Dr. Pinhas

When a woman has sexual intercourse she  always runs the risk of getting pregnant ( unless she knows that she and her partner are sterile).  Some birth control methods have  better effectiveness rates than others.  Birth control pills and other hormonal methods of preventing pregnancy are a good way to go if you are the type of woman who has no contraindications for hormones– for example, you have no clotting disorders ( Factor V Leiden), are free from high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes, migraine headaches, varicose veins, cancer and DON”T SMOKE CIGARETTES.  If hormones are are not your thing, condoms used with spermicide (either he uses the jelly on his penis, places the condom over it and puts more spermicidal jelly on the outside OR you take an applicator of spermicidal jelly and deposit it in your vagina) are an excellent over- the- counter method that rivals hormonal methods like the nuva ring or birth control pills.  IUD’s are also an excellent way of preventing pregnancy but many young woman who have never been pregnant or aborted are advised to consider their insertion into the uterus a little later in their lives.  Coitus interruptus, AKA( pulling out,) is better than letting him ejaculate inside of you, but you certainly run a higher risk of getting pregnant from sperm which may be swimming in his pre-ejaculatory fluid.

You also raise an interesting urban myth  which has a lot of men and women  scratching their heads– that is,  a woman cannot  get pregnant when she is having sexual intercourse at the tail end of her period or right after her period finishes.   Yes, you certainly can. Getting pregnant depends upon a number of factors.  One important factor is the timing of a woman’s ovulation.  Ovulation is determined by hormones in the pituitary gland. These hormones, FSH and LH are sensitive to all sorts of stressors, internally and externally.  Soooooo, drama, aggravation, final exams, colds, being run down, poor nutrition,  warm weather, change of seasons, can influence when a woman ovulates.  We woman are not Swiss time pieces and we can’t expect to ovulate Day 14, mid cycle, for every mentsrual cycle.  It’s hard to know when we will ovulate but it is  not unusual to have a spontaneous ovulation, when you least expect it ( during your period, or right after you finish shedding endometrium).  Once you ovulate, count 14 day and you will in all likelihood get your next period.  If you ovulate very early ( day 7), you are likely to get your period day 21    ” Wow, how did that happen, I just finished my period and I got it again.”  If you ovulate real late, like day 21, you’ll get your next period approximately 14 days after, which will be day 35.  All the while, you may lose your mind thinking you are pregnant because you have not gotten your period and have never been as late as this. You  may not realize that you ovulated late and hence got your period later than you ever have for this calendar year.  Pretty nerve racking and emotionally draining for you and him.  Don’t you think?  It is so much more comforting, using a reliable, consistent method of birth control so you avoid the monthly menstrual melodrama.  To sum up, if you want to avoid pregnancy also use some form of birth control–remember that no time is a safe time….. their are riskier times than others.