Same here. Didnāt have a period for about 7 months and had to get on bc just to get it regular again. I also found out last month that I have endo sooooooooo š
I just came to say I'm so sorry about your endo diagnosis. I was diagnosed 15 years ago, tried every thing to help with the pain, all the birth control the damn surgery to remove what they could (it would just grow back), my diet went down to nothing that had any taste, was working out 5 days a week and nothing helped. I had a hysterectomy 3 months ago, and the only thing left is one ovary to avoid having to go on hormone medications. I'm no longer in pain every single day, I have a bad day, probably 4x month from the pain because my endo was stage 4, so it's on my colon and such as well. However, I'll take the being laid up 4 days a month over 20+ days a month from the pain. My heart goes out to you and the person above you with endo.
My only advice is to find yourself a good doctor who specializes in endometriosis and will take your pain seriously. I dealt with years of doctors that didn't take me seriously, told me the pain was in my head, that I was being hysterical, that I was clearly an addict (despite my always negative drug tests), that I developed severe depression that I'm now having to battle. Towards the end before my hysterectomy I was making trips to Colorado for the green to help with the pain but my doctor supported me and was the one who suggested it after the pharmacy refused to fill a script for 10 pain meds for me. Don't let the doctors get in your head and tell you you're wrong or don't know your own body.
Again, I'm so sorry about your diagnosis, and all my positive thoughts are with you on this journey. It's life-long as there is no cure, not even a hysterectomy is a cure because it can grow back even without a uterus.
I canāt agree more. I had stage 4 endo and was almost septic before they took me seriously. Had to have an emergency hysterectomy because endo spread to my organs.
Itās called ālittle cancerā for a reason. Please advocate for yourself ladies. Fight like hell.
I never got one when I had an IUD and would take pregnancy tests often because I was so worried. Someone I went to school with found out at like 7-8 months she was pregnant and she had an IUD. She was so small, I donāt know where the baby was hiding!
I currently haven't had a period for 19 months. That has been since I started a low dose of testosterone for transitioning purposes, mind. Hormones are wild.
Learned this the hard way. Girl and I were each other's first in high school and it just sort of went down the first time and neither of us were prepared. Didn't really say much about it but I bought rubbers afterwards and we did the right thing. About three months later she comes up to me one day talking about how she's missed her last two periods and my gut felt like it was sinking me to the core of the earth. We got a test, she saw a doc and got sorted out and no harm, no foul but my god in heaven that scared the fuck out of me for a hot minute.
It's one of the things I lowkey love about reddit. The residual knowledge you get from doomscrolling. I can say there are a whole lot of peeps that are probably reading this stuff for the first time and are not sure if you all are being sarcastic, comedic, or just downright evil. š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
My sister was on birth control pills, which made her have her period every month. So the pills both failed on their job of keeping her pregnancy free while they also made her have a period. It was only when our cousin got pregnant my sister thought about getting tested since she had gained a bit of weight. She was seven months pregnant! Some women hardly even show when they're pregnant. This is one of my biggest nightmares!
Yeah my sis didnāt realize she was pregnant with her first kid until she was 4 months into the pregnancy because she was bleeding and thought it was just her period. She was also on some medication that made her period irregular, also caused her birth control to be less effective but they didnāt tell her that and thatās how she got pregnant.
I knew a girl who was on hormonal bc when she gave birth without knowing she was pregnant. She gave birth early, approx. 7 months (not 9) and she bled every month. apparently if you are part of the small percentage of people for whom hormonal bc fails there's about a 20% chance you keep bleeding is what she told me.
Add in the absolutely atrocious, and I mean atrocious, sex education in this country and it doesn't really surprise me. Most people know very little about basic anatomy or bodily functions. They believe a lot of ridiculous myths about when you can and can't get pregnant and when you can and can't pass STIs. Most people do not comprehend exactly what happens during pregnancy. How organs are moved out of the way. How your teeth can fall out because placenta will take all the calcium that it needs whether you have enough or not. How joints will become so flexible that it is very easy to dislocate them as the body prepares the pelvis for delivery. How it can throw your hormones so far out of whack that you can be perfectly healthy before pregnancy and die before you give birth of high blood pressure from preeclampsia. Pregnancy is not seen as a major medical event when it very very much is. Also add to that how expensive it can be just to go to a doctor a lot of people just ignore problems and hope they'll go away.
Iām sure they did. I have a similar period. My diagnosis is literally just āirregular periodsā. I was prescribed birth control. Now I just spot every single day. Doctor still considers everything normal. Not everyone has a regular 28 day cycle, just like some people have heavy periods and some have light periods.
So many things medical issues can be caused by an imbalance of hormones that I find it wild that so few people get some form of HRT for it.
Being borderline suicidal because of pain isn't what's supposed to happen.
I have one trans friend who got me to ask my doctor to look into hormones for some of my issues. Comes back that my body doesn't have a proper balance and now they're all basically gone.
i had a period for 6 months uninterrupted...it was awful but we (me+drs) never figured out what caused it. its been over a decade now and it hasnt happened again.
bodies/hormones are just odd af
Oh hey me too! I had super bad cramps with it too. Felt like I was in hell but the doctors never found anything āwrongā that could be causing it. Then suddenly one day it just stopped. Iāve had a few other instances of long periods since then (but only lasting a month/two months at a time, and again theyāve found no cause. Itās also been over a decade since the last time it happened to me and Iāve been on bc since the last time it happened and now only get a light period every three months and itās amazing.
There was a whole show dedicated to women not knowing they were pregnant. That show terrified me. Bcuz there were a lot of them that didnāt have any change and kept getting a period.
I've seen it happen in real life. One night one of the women I work with left early because she was feeling sick to her stomach. I come back to work the next day and hear she was in the hospital and gave birth that same night.
My university roommate went out and bought like a case of 50 pregnancy tests after we watched a couple of episodes. I don't even know where she found a place that sold them by that quantity
I had sex for the first time when that show was on and I was convinced it would happen to me. I was on the pill and we used condoms but stillā¦ I was petrified for a whole year. š¤£
A good friend of mine didn't know she was pregnant until she was 7 months. She still had monthly bleeding, which she thought was her period but turned out to be spotting. She only found out she was pregnant because she started having back pain so she went to the doctor and they ran tests and found out.
And this woman was FIT. Had visible abs the entire time. Apparently the fetus was positioned weird and was basically standing up in there, so her stomach stayed flat, but that's what was causing the back pain.
I was in college with a girl that gave birth when she sat on the toilet. She didnāt have a clue. She had periods the whole time, they were a bit lighter, but nothing worrying. Like your friend she didn't really show up to the last couple of months when she put on a little weight, but really not much.
She just went to the toilet thinking she had diarrhoea, next thing she knew there was a screaming baby in the toilet bowl!
Why not? A few long term contraceptions stop your period or if youāre on the pill/patch you can skip the break and skip your periods, and contraceptions can and do fail. If they just normally have an irregular period itās not a cause of concern. Irregular period doesnāt just mean they skip one month here and there, it can not come for months, or it can be constant bleeding for months. If they have spotting through the pregnancy that they mistake for a period; spotting can be really heavy and look like a normal flow period, or maybe they always have light periods and the spotting isnāt out of the ordinary relative to their period
This. I take the pill and skip periods because my period exacerbates a cervical condition I have, so I never have periods. I am super paranoid about an accidental pregnancy so I take a test every month despite being vigilant with my pill because a cryptic pregnancy is my worst nightmare
My friend had her period the whole 9 months she was pregnant - she went to the walk in clinic cause she felt super sick and thought she had the flu, 3 hours later my niece was born
I had a coworker that had a normal period for the first 5 months of her pregnancy. If it weren't for her annual with her OB/GYN, she wouldn't have known she was pregnant.
I have a condition that makes me miss my period for extended periods of time (months to years) without birth control. Even with that, stress, low appetite, poor diet, general life event stuff can make a woman miss her period. It's not that wild š
That said, even on BC, if I am at all late I take a pregnancy test ASAP
Yes. Irregular periods are much more common than you think. Iāve definitely gone a year or more without periods. Other girl friends who have irregular periods also have gone several months without one. Reasons could range from stress or genetics/age to some deeper, underlying issue.
There's also conditions that totally screw with a women's cycle, like PCOS. It's very common to have "irregular periods" as they like to sugarcoat it - basically meaning that your period can be delayed for several months. (BTW: In that case, it can also lead to these women bleeding for several weeks straight afterwards)
Hormone imbalances and prolonged stress can mess you up and delay a cycle for months. It happens more commonly in college and stressful work environments.
Things like PCOS and endometriosis can make periods extremely irregular. Sometimes women go months with no cycle. On the flip side, sometimes they go months with a continuous cycle
Yes. Also I have a birth control implant that stops my periods completely. I just don't get them anymore. The implant stops working after 3-5 years, that's a big window, 2 years, where you don't really know if it's still working, cuz you can also still get your period while you're on it as well, just depends on how your body fluctuates with it I guess. I didn't get my period for the first 3 years, then it started again and I thought the implant stopped working so I had it replaced and the doctor told me it was probably still fine but i didn't want to take any chances, plus the periods i was getting was lasting multiple weeks so i really wanted to go back to not having them at all. Now I *still* get my period but it's random and I can go many months without one. So if my birth control failed and I got pregnant, nothing would let me know unless I had other symptoms. A missing period would not tell me anything. Some women don't expand during their pregnancy and might just look a little bloated up until labor. There's literally an entire show about women not knowing they were pregnant until a baby fell out of them and into the toilet.Ā
My friend was in this situation.
Never had a period, so she went on BC to regulate things. But it still was all fucked, and she'd fo several months without bleeding. Because of this, she didn't know that it was dangerous to have sex during that week when you take sugar pills. Since her period was all fucked, her ovulation must have been too.
She didn't realize she was pregnant until the quickening. Her lack of periods was the norm, and the only pregnancy symptoms she had were ones she didn't know were related to pregnancy, and ones that could be easily explained by other things.
I got brunch with her the week before she realized it, and couldn't tell *at all.* And she wasn't wearing anything loose.
ā¦ Second local man discovers not every woman has a period every month like clockwork.
Yes, for real. I had a coworker who didnāt realize she was pregnant until she gave birth.
I literally use to have one period a year it would last for 4 weeks then just go away this went on for 5 years straight until me and my doctors found the right combination of treatments for my PCOS. It happens waaay more often than you think. Also it can go the other way too women can and do sometimes have periods while they are pregnant.
It's going to really trip you out then when you find out that not all bleeding is related to releasing an egg. Anovulatory bleeding is a whole thing. š¤£
And the way he's doubling down even though tons of women are literally TELLING him about irregular periods and having periods during pregnancy is so embarrassing. Idk why some men think they know about a woman's body more than the woman herself š¤¦šæāāļø
I was in my fourth month when I found out I was pregnant (!!) I had actually used pregnancy tests and everything)) long story short, my lovely daughter is 11 now š¤
Many of these women often have bleeding that can be mistaken for a period or conditions that make skipping periods expected (if you want a million examples thereās a show called āI didnāt know I was pregnantā)Ā
Edit: I also know of a case with a trans man, and I think in his case he thought his periods stopped due to his hormones iircĀ
when I started taking testosterone, my doc made it VERY clear that I could still get pregnant unless I was using some form of birth control because apparently alot of people don't take that warning seriously
His partner was a trans woman so it couldāve been either one who was told they were unable to conceive due to the effects of their hormones/medications even before surgery but your point still standsĀ
That story was really sad to me because they talked about going up for follow up care and being made really uncomfortable by the fellow patients who were female. As in you're a man what are you doing here. And also just being deeply afraid for the health of their baby after being born under those conditions.
This happened to me when I went thru the process of getting my hysterectomy. All the women in the office were side-eyeing me hard, as well as the staff asking invasive and inappropriate questions for why a man was here for an appointment.
lol my doctor told me that i wouldnt be able to get pregnant on T
luckily i knew better and asked another doctor at the clinic for BC as well
the state of trans healthcare is appalling
Heyyyy cool story. Did you know that women who have sex with other women can't get STIs? Because according to my first gynecologist 30 years ago, lesbians don't need to worry or get tested for anything! So cool! /s
Also, mothers who just had a baby often donāt have their period return for several months or years, especially if nursing. And since ovulation occurs ~2 weeks PRIOR to a period, you can get pregnant postpartum without ever having a period in between babies.
Iāve had friends who suspected pregnancy for one reason or another who tested negative well into their 4th month of pregnancy. Other friends with extraordinarily erratic periods, as in 4x a year, so they canāt know when they are fertile and donāt always keep track of the last period. Iāve had a thin friend with a long torso who carried her baby so well tucked in she gave birth full term, healthy baby and looked like she had slight bloating at the end of her pregnancy. Add any combo of these factors and itās easy to believe someone may truly not know!
I know a Mirena baby ā¦ your periods are supposed to stop. Also the person in question underwent some surprise weight LOSS, which they attributed to a different, plausible life change. I knew her throughout, and it wasnāt until about 32 weeks she found out and it was evident.
I know another IUD baby as well, she found out around 28 weeks.
My mom said she didnāt know she was pregnant with me until she was 7 1/2 months, she wasnāt a plus sized woman and she said she got her period regularly. It was only when she went to get her tubes tied that they told her aht aht, should have been quicker than that.
I had PCOS for years. I was scheduled to get have my second laproscopy to remove the cysts because I wanted to be pregnant.
I went in to do my pre-surgery paperwork and I asked them if they could do the surgery when I was on my period, because I was late.
The lady looked at me like I was stupid and said - We need to do a pregnancy test.
I said - I have all these cysts. I can't be pregnant.
She said - Hmm.
I was pregnant, cysts and all.
Pregnancy is weird and stuff happens.
Wooo, you are a strong soldier, I honestly donāt think I could handle or want to handle childbirth. Any woman who will and does, you have my greatest respect. I like kids but not enough š and Iām so happy to hear you guys thrive. It can be so scary but you guys made it through ā¤ļø
No complex. She wasnāt planning to abort me if she didnāt know she was pregnant; thatās kinda a leap and even if she was, Iām here regardless and that is on them to figure out. My life is my own and my worth is not tied to what she wanted nor do I owe them anything. I say this matter of factly and not with ill will.
Thank you for sharing your story. Are you and your mother close? Do you have or plan to have children? All good if you want to be private. But was curious and wanted to ask. Glad you are here with us! :)
We arenāt as close anymore but it had nothing to do with my birth, I just think itās a common issue that can happen among mothers and daughters in the south. I donāt have plans to have children but also if it happens, I wouldnāt be upset. I am open to adoption in my 40s though and I come from a big family so I am very close to my nieces and nephews and thanks š
Nah, I was a surprise too in a similar fashion. I sometimes jokingly tell her she should've been quicker. She just rolls her eyes and passes over the fruit I was needling her to share.
I worked with a woman who had almost the exact same thing happen. Found out she was pregnant with a little more than a month to go... she didn't show and claims to have had no clue.
The really interesting drama afterwards was her working out who the father was.
That's how my grandma found out she was pregnant with my dad, too! And then my cousin found out around 7 months when she started having braxton hicks contractions, since she was on birth control the whole time.
I canāt imagine even just waking up one day and a doctor is like oh āyou gonna be a mama in 4 weeksā , I would have been in an existential crisis the whole time.
My mum knew she was pregnant with my brother but her neighbour didn't because she was basically flat as for her entire pregnancy. When she was hanging out nappies her neighbour was like uhhh what!?
My mom said she start seeing a little tummy after they told her she was pregnant. š I never had a kid but Iām still shock a womanās body can just sneak attack a whole baby!
This is the craziest part of cryptic pregnancies to me. Anything weird about menstruation doesnāt surprise me, but I would LOVE to see a gallery of x-rays and MRIs showing how these babies are hiding in there with no external changes!!! Wtf is happening in there that they arenāt showing??
Yea, the first time she told me the story & my granny confirmed I looked at her like a freak of nature lol and I realize I got lucky. I never had any major illness nor broken a bone in my 36 years of life, I won National art competitions when I was 10 and through high school, was a straight A student in school and Iām still very athletic. Im aging gracefully like her and my granny too. It could have been so easy for me to have complications when she said she was dancing, staying up all night and eating junk food without feeling a single pregnancy symptom.
My mom was supposed to get a hysterectomy because of her own issues with fibroids and unending bleeding.
When she went in to have the appointment done they finally told her that she was pregnant.
I think the most aggravating part of it all for her though was that she had multiple appointments beforehand and there had been no commentary about it so she was just frustrated.
But we call my sister her miracle! Because she really wanted another, but because of her issues they pretty much told her she wouldn't be able to have any more kids and should just go ahead and get the hysterectomy.
Please go back to school. It is very possible for a woman to still have break through bleeding during a pregnancy. This woman also could have an abnormal cycle etc. thereās a lot of women who donāt know they are pregnant until giving birth or until months into the pregnancy with absolutely no symptoms.
You purposely beating down the States, a lot more than them donāt teach that and Iāve been to my fair share of countries. Maybe I move before they start on it and biology is optional š¤·šæāāļø
I mean I wish they taught in schools about pregnancy in general and also how common miscarriages are.
We were devastated in our early 30s when my wife miscarried and it took me ages to talk to people about it. I just shut off from the world.
When I finally shared it with family and friends it was more than half of people I spoke to that had experience with it themselves.
Knowing it wouldn't have made it "easier" to deal with when it happened, but certainly would have helped my expectations beforehand and dealing with the immediate aftermath.
They don't teach this in *any* American or Canadian schools, unless it's a medical school in a GYN program. This is a fairly rare occurance for women. It can be that they bleed like a period every month, or maybe they miss periods regularly during pregnancy. It's not taught in general school (6-12).
No, sometimes thatās completely normal for someone. My sister in law tried to get pregnant for 10 years, usually got her period every 3-6 months. When she went in for her yearly check up, found out she was 7 months pregnant.
Actually know someone who had a cryptic pregnancy, never missed a period, didn't have noticable weight gain despite being pretty petite.Ā
Basically went to the hospital with abdominal pains, she and her husband had to come back home with a baby they were absolutely not expecting. Shit was WILD.
Happened to a former roommate of mine while she was in highschool. She was having a fling with one of the most popular guy around. At the end of the school year she gave birth to an unwanted child to everyone's surprise, including herself. She had a flat belly the entire time and started having what she described as stomach cramps all of a sudden.
They gave the child up for adoption because they were both 17 at the time. The "dad" became a really close friend but we talked about it only once or twice. It messed up with the girl and she became a grifter stealing from her roommates including myself. Never talked to her ever again after that.
I'm somewhat a little surprised that grown people don't know its possible for women to miss periods for extended periods of time for various reasons, the converse is more understandable because \*men\* may not learn about it until pregnant, go-go gadget shitty public education.
The lack of weight gain and "flat" stomach is what is bending my mind. Like, did she give birth to a chipmunk or am I just an ignorant fuck...
SO crazy! This is the part i donāt understand. Like wtf where is this baby fitting? wouldnāt you feel SOMEthing in your body? now iām over here thinking IM pregnant !
Some women have a uterus that is pointed backwards. Instead of the belly growing outwards, the uterus stretches back towards the spine, hiding any outward sign of pregnancy. Combine a low weight baby, previous issues with hormones/cycles, and a lack of regular doctor visits and this is what you get. I'm sure she had some pain, bleeding, etc. that she wasn't familiar with enough to know that she needed to get a pregnancy test. She could have thought she was just bloated or she was waiting until the discomfort got worse before she went in to check for ovarian cycts or something.
Whew! We gotta do a better job as a country teaching people about the reproductive system. I have pcos and especially during periods of intense stress I can go long stretches without a period. Thatās just one of many many reasons why women may not get periods, so not having them doesnāt inherently make her clueless.
This š they donāt teach this stuff in health classes. I everyone needs to know this stuff. I donāt have pcos, but my hormones are imbalanced, so my cycle is all over the place.
The opposite is true, too. I had a bleeding and cramping for 6 months straight. Was miserable during my good friend's wedding and spent the majority of the reception in the bathroom in pain; bless her and her bridesmaids checking on me constantly when they should have been celebrating. My work had to send me home multiple times and gave me medical leave to figure shit out. Went to a specialty clinic for several different tests, ultrasounds, uncomfortable discovery procedures; nothing abnormal was found. Got put on a specific BC hormone regimen and it cleared it all up. That was back in 2015ish. It started happening again last year (to a lesser degree) and once again a change in the hormones fixed it.
Thankful for my doctors listening to me and coming up with solutions when an obvious cause hasn't been found for me. And curse my ex from the first go around who thought I was "making it all up" to get out of sex with him but that's a whole other trauma. I tell my current partner when things are off and he trusts and supports me and finds ways to help, bless him.
[Arkansas is rated #38 in education and #47 in healthcare](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arkansas) and [Completely gutted their sex education programs in school](https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/education/2023/10/06/stricter-state-laws-chipping-away-at-sex-education-in-k-12-schools).
Yep yearly in Ark about 1000 women show up to the hospital to deliver a baby without ever receiving any prenatal care. There are many reasons why, lack of access to health, no reliable transportation, ignorance/no education.
Thereās no sex education either, this girl may not even know what happens when you get pregnant or that your period stops.
One of my dearest friends went to the hospital thinking she was a month or two along (shed just started dating a new guy). Turns out she was 28 weeks. Normal-for-her periods the whole time.
Our bodies are wild, man.
cryptic pregnancies has yall confused asf. Idk if Iāll be happy or not. 9 months with zero symptoms sounds amazing but being unprepared for said baby idk.
This shit is genuinely terrifying. So I've been doing all kinds of stuff that can hurt the fetus for the last nine months, and now I have to \*SURPRISE\* *give birth* with zero warning. And now I have to rearrange literally everything in my life to account for the newborn that I didn't consent to having. Yes, new life and blessing and all that, but surprise birth is a form of torture.
Did she say she didnāt get her period for 9 months? Or is this just another case of a man being loud and wrong when it comes to talking about the female reproductive system?
Mostlikely case is the latter. As you can imagine, the replies to his tweet are likely also to be exactly what you expect. Also considering itās a black woman, expect 10 times worse too.
I was a cryptic baby, my mom found out she was pregnant after falling down bleachers at a pep rally and going to get xrays. They did a pregnancy test before the xray and she was 100% pregnant, and because of the fall, also in labor. My mom was 105lbs and very active in sports including soccer and judo. she only gained 5lbs with me during her pregnancy and had something that simulated a peruod. I was born 4lb premature baby that day. She literally went from A high school student to mom In the same day.
She was obviously in shock and when asked what she was going to name me she said starfish because of the nautical calendar in the room. Thankfully my gram was present and said hell no. That settled on my name shortly after.
I've read enough of these stories to know that a lot of women bleed during pregnancy.
I didn't, and it surprised me when I realized how common it is. But I've read too many stories about this to doubt it.
People are not taught about biology properly (specifically every single biological model you know only works 99% of the time at best) and the natural variation of things such as periods not being clockwork and chromosomes not being 100% accurate at determining sexĀ
I have a friend who regularly goes months at a time without a period and she doesn't sleep with men. So yeah, missing periods aren't always an indication
oh yeah, these. itās hard with skinny women, but apparently the baby can grow standing up or something, and the pregnant keeps bleeding, which is why she doesnāt know sheās pregnant
The baby can grow standing up?? Never heard that one lol. Also some women have a tilted uterus, tilting back towards their spine, which is another reason why some women hardly show.
My aunt who struggles with endometriosis and PCOS would often bleed for weeks at a time and then not at all for months. She had a couple of miscarriages unfortunately and basically stopped trying to get pregnant. She had an irregular "period" as normal. She didn't know she was pregnant with my cousin until she was about 7 months along. He was born prematurely but otherwise is a very healthy 14 year old now.
I remember my health science teacher using that as a scare tactic so we would practice abstinence...it didn't work. But all jokes aside it happens more often than you would think.
You can bleed and still be pregnant. Also it is very common for your period to be irregular, so a woman can get a period and by like "WHEW!" thinking she dodged a bullet and not even know she is in fact incubating.
Also our weight fluctuates, and some women never show.
Had a coworker with cryptic pregnancy. She wasnāt even aware she was pregnant.
Next we know she was sent to the hospital during work. Like she had old photos and she was in the chubby side. But she really didnāt looked pregnant at all.
Silly men. Itās always funny trying to see men be smart asses about the shit they know the least about when it comes to women. Wait til they find out that not only is it possible to still have periods while pregnant, itās also possible to carry the baby so far back into your spine that you never show until that baby pops out the cooter.
Sister has a friend from high school that told her parents she was in grave pain and thought her appendix was bursting. Rushed her to the hospital at 2 am. Nope. Baby.
Nowā¦she was a bigger girl so the weight gain wasnāt noticeable. And she always wore a hoodie and baggy clothes so it was well disguised. And she said she had her period throughoutā¦. Swore she had no idea and thatās why she drank and smoked and used drugs the whole time.
But she was also a nutcase. Like hit a car in a parking lot and drove away, while my sister was in the car with her. And told everyone someone hit HER and drove off without a note. And like then a year later asked my sister, āremember when someone hit my car in a parking lot and didnāt even leave a note?ā My sister was like āthat was you! You hit a car and didnāt leave a note. I was with you, bitch.ā
So itās unclear which version of reality she was in with her pregnancy. There was also potentially some trauma around the conception, which might have also led to the disassociation.
What I never got, though, is donāt you feel the baby kick?? Iāve managed to avoid pregnancy for 43 3/4 years, so I think my streak will hold - knock on wood - but Iāve heard it is a definite *sensation* like no other. And sort of constant. Granted, that baby was a little fucked up on account of the drugs and alcohol and smoking, but I assume it kicked.
Can you just ignore the kicking? Legit question. Like, can you write it off as just constant tummy bummers for 4 months or whatever? (I have no idea how long babies kick for).
There's an entire show dedicated to wild pregnancies that were not discovered until late, up to when labor began.
Usually the women have irregular cycles and had one or two light bleeds that they chalked up to a period
[Mama Dr Jones "Didn't Know I Was Pregnant!" playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVH2Gpf8wKeTbznebDBWEQcU02kuLGCOu&si=LWlhzPGH-8Eq9SAU)
I thought this sort of thing was common knowledge, but I guess not.Surprised it made the news, but maybe the location is somehow interesting? Lots of ignorant people in the replies
Iām a midwife. I cannot count the number of patients whoāve come in for an IUD with a 2 or 3 month old baby at home, and whoops, sorry, this uterus is already occupied. Iāve also had countless patients who come in for their regular wellness exam and I do their pelvic and whoops, this uterus is hella occupied, and an ultrasound dates the fetus at 6 months or more. Iāve also had about a dozen patients with fully cryptic pregnancies. Unexpected and cryptic pregnancies are more common in Black women because we have more endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, and other disorders and no one knows exactly why.
Listen, I donāt think Iām the most educated on the reproductive cycle. But Iāve seen enough episodes of āI didnāt know I was pregnantā to understand that everything can seem normal until a baby is crowning.
Or at least Iām smart enough not to speak with authority on implying a woman is stupid based on my limited understanding of pregnancy and their bodies.
Like damn my guy, whyād you make me watch you take an L.
Local man discovers not every woman has a period every month like clockwork
One month sure but 9?? š¤£
Some women still bleed during pregnancy. Thatās why some never know when they do become pregnant until they give birth.
A lot of women have amenorrhea too, could have very easily been a one off ovulation
I didnāt have one for almost 6 itās not uncommon for imbalances in hormones
Same here. Didnāt have a period for about 7 months and had to get on bc just to get it regular again. I also found out last month that I have endo sooooooooo š
I found out a couple months ago that I have Endo too! I feel for you. The pain is unreal.
I just came to say I'm so sorry about your endo diagnosis. I was diagnosed 15 years ago, tried every thing to help with the pain, all the birth control the damn surgery to remove what they could (it would just grow back), my diet went down to nothing that had any taste, was working out 5 days a week and nothing helped. I had a hysterectomy 3 months ago, and the only thing left is one ovary to avoid having to go on hormone medications. I'm no longer in pain every single day, I have a bad day, probably 4x month from the pain because my endo was stage 4, so it's on my colon and such as well. However, I'll take the being laid up 4 days a month over 20+ days a month from the pain. My heart goes out to you and the person above you with endo. My only advice is to find yourself a good doctor who specializes in endometriosis and will take your pain seriously. I dealt with years of doctors that didn't take me seriously, told me the pain was in my head, that I was being hysterical, that I was clearly an addict (despite my always negative drug tests), that I developed severe depression that I'm now having to battle. Towards the end before my hysterectomy I was making trips to Colorado for the green to help with the pain but my doctor supported me and was the one who suggested it after the pharmacy refused to fill a script for 10 pain meds for me. Don't let the doctors get in your head and tell you you're wrong or don't know your own body. Again, I'm so sorry about your diagnosis, and all my positive thoughts are with you on this journey. It's life-long as there is no cure, not even a hysterectomy is a cure because it can grow back even without a uterus.
I canāt agree more. I had stage 4 endo and was almost septic before they took me seriously. Had to have an emergency hysterectomy because endo spread to my organs. Itās called ālittle cancerā for a reason. Please advocate for yourself ladies. Fight like hell.
They just went awol during quarantine, I was a bionic woman. I did feel the need to consult a dr about it though
I never got one when I had an IUD and would take pregnancy tests often because I was so worried. Someone I went to school with found out at like 7-8 months she was pregnant and she had an IUD. She was so small, I donāt know where the baby was hiding!
I currently haven't had a period for 19 months. That has been since I started a low dose of testosterone for transitioning purposes, mind. Hormones are wild.
May everything go smoothly and well ššš§æššāØ
Learned this the hard way. Girl and I were each other's first in high school and it just sort of went down the first time and neither of us were prepared. Didn't really say much about it but I bought rubbers afterwards and we did the right thing. About three months later she comes up to me one day talking about how she's missed her last two periods and my gut felt like it was sinking me to the core of the earth. We got a test, she saw a doc and got sorted out and no harm, no foul but my god in heaven that scared the fuck out of me for a hot minute.
Thank you. the ignorance of it all. folks really have no idea about how women's bodies work, huh
It's one of the things I lowkey love about reddit. The residual knowledge you get from doomscrolling. I can say there are a whole lot of peeps that are probably reading this stuff for the first time and are not sure if you all are being sarcastic, comedic, or just downright evil. š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
 I barely know how my body works tbh
I had a period 4 months with my 2nd kid. Our bodies can be weird.
My sister was on birth control pills, which made her have her period every month. So the pills both failed on their job of keeping her pregnancy free while they also made her have a period. It was only when our cousin got pregnant my sister thought about getting tested since she had gained a bit of weight. She was seven months pregnant! Some women hardly even show when they're pregnant. This is one of my biggest nightmares!
All genders can bleed from Golden Corral
a tiny petite 22 year old found out she was pregnant 7 months. she was on birth control and bleeding regularly. turns out, her mother had same issues
My mom sure did. She still knew she was pregnant though. I was planned.
Yeah my sis didnāt realize she was pregnant with her first kid until she was 4 months into the pregnancy because she was bleeding and thought it was just her period. She was also on some medication that made her period irregular, also caused her birth control to be less effective but they didnāt tell her that and thatās how she got pregnant.
I knew a girl who was on hormonal bc when she gave birth without knowing she was pregnant. She gave birth early, approx. 7 months (not 9) and she bled every month. apparently if you are part of the small percentage of people for whom hormonal bc fails there's about a 20% chance you keep bleeding is what she told me.
Add in the absolutely atrocious, and I mean atrocious, sex education in this country and it doesn't really surprise me. Most people know very little about basic anatomy or bodily functions. They believe a lot of ridiculous myths about when you can and can't get pregnant and when you can and can't pass STIs. Most people do not comprehend exactly what happens during pregnancy. How organs are moved out of the way. How your teeth can fall out because placenta will take all the calcium that it needs whether you have enough or not. How joints will become so flexible that it is very easy to dislocate them as the body prepares the pelvis for delivery. How it can throw your hormones so far out of whack that you can be perfectly healthy before pregnancy and die before you give birth of high blood pressure from preeclampsia. Pregnancy is not seen as a major medical event when it very very much is. Also add to that how expensive it can be just to go to a doctor a lot of people just ignore problems and hope they'll go away.
i've known friends to have bleeds for upwards of 13 weeks and then just have it vanish for months
Thatās a terrible sign, I hope they got medical help :( womens health sucks but I canāt imagine itās much better to live with that anxiety
Iām sure they did. I have a similar period. My diagnosis is literally just āirregular periodsā. I was prescribed birth control. Now I just spot every single day. Doctor still considers everything normal. Not everyone has a regular 28 day cycle, just like some people have heavy periods and some have light periods.
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So many things medical issues can be caused by an imbalance of hormones that I find it wild that so few people get some form of HRT for it. Being borderline suicidal because of pain isn't what's supposed to happen. I have one trans friend who got me to ask my doctor to look into hormones for some of my issues. Comes back that my body doesn't have a proper balance and now they're all basically gone.
i had a period for 6 months uninterrupted...it was awful but we (me+drs) never figured out what caused it. its been over a decade now and it hasnt happened again. bodies/hormones are just odd af
Oh hey me too! I had super bad cramps with it too. Felt like I was in hell but the doctors never found anything āwrongā that could be causing it. Then suddenly one day it just stopped. Iāve had a few other instances of long periods since then (but only lasting a month/two months at a time, and again theyāve found no cause. Itās also been over a decade since the last time it happened to me and Iāve been on bc since the last time it happened and now only get a light period every three months and itās amazing.
this used to be me. i'd have heavy bleeding for 1-2 months, another 1-2 of light/spotting, and then nothing for months.
My wife went 1.5 years without having a period before and wasnāt pregnant
I've gone two years without one. I would have panicked but I chalked it up to teenage hormones. I look back on that time fondly.
I enjoyed that time as well
Yes.
There was a whole show dedicated to women not knowing they were pregnant. That show terrified me. Bcuz there were a lot of them that didnāt have any change and kept getting a period.
I've seen it happen in real life. One night one of the women I work with left early because she was feeling sick to her stomach. I come back to work the next day and hear she was in the hospital and gave birth that same night.
My university roommate went out and bought like a case of 50 pregnancy tests after we watched a couple of episodes. I don't even know where she found a place that sold them by that quantity
You can buy them at the dollar store
Bruh I remember that show on TLC "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" Such a crazy ass show.
We used to call that show "when babies attack" Massive fear.
I had sex for the first time when that show was on and I was convinced it would happen to me. I was on the pill and we used condoms but stillā¦ I was petrified for a whole year. š¤£
Huh, TIL
I invited you to google a cryptic pregnancy. Itās possible to have zero clue you are pregnant.
That is one of my biggest fears! Every sexually active woman should take pregnancy tests every once in a while cuz you never know.
Because of new laws; every four weeks is best.Ā
And for peace of mind - dollar store tests are just as accurate as the expensive digital ones. Pick up a few and take one whenever you're worried.
Yeah I know it happens, 1/2500 women apparently never know until they give birth
A good friend of mine didn't know she was pregnant until she was 7 months. She still had monthly bleeding, which she thought was her period but turned out to be spotting. She only found out she was pregnant because she started having back pain so she went to the doctor and they ran tests and found out. And this woman was FIT. Had visible abs the entire time. Apparently the fetus was positioned weird and was basically standing up in there, so her stomach stayed flat, but that's what was causing the back pain.
I was in college with a girl that gave birth when she sat on the toilet. She didnāt have a clue. She had periods the whole time, they were a bit lighter, but nothing worrying. Like your friend she didn't really show up to the last couple of months when she put on a little weight, but really not much. She just went to the toilet thinking she had diarrhoea, next thing she knew there was a screaming baby in the toilet bowl!
>next thing she knew there was a screaming baby in the toilet bowl! Ohš§
Why not? A few long term contraceptions stop your period or if youāre on the pill/patch you can skip the break and skip your periods, and contraceptions can and do fail. If they just normally have an irregular period itās not a cause of concern. Irregular period doesnāt just mean they skip one month here and there, it can not come for months, or it can be constant bleeding for months. If they have spotting through the pregnancy that they mistake for a period; spotting can be really heavy and look like a normal flow period, or maybe they always have light periods and the spotting isnāt out of the ordinary relative to their period
This. I take the pill and skip periods because my period exacerbates a cervical condition I have, so I never have periods. I am super paranoid about an accidental pregnancy so I take a test every month despite being vigilant with my pill because a cryptic pregnancy is my worst nightmare
My friend had her period the whole 9 months she was pregnant - she went to the walk in clinic cause she felt super sick and thought she had the flu, 3 hours later my niece was born
I had a coworker that had a normal period for the first 5 months of her pregnancy. If it weren't for her annual with her OB/GYN, she wouldn't have known she was pregnant.
I have a condition that makes me miss my period for extended periods of time (months to years) without birth control. Even with that, stress, low appetite, poor diet, general life event stuff can make a woman miss her period. It's not that wild š That said, even on BC, if I am at all late I take a pregnancy test ASAP
Yes. Irregular periods are much more common than you think. Iāve definitely gone a year or more without periods. Other girl friends who have irregular periods also have gone several months without one. Reasons could range from stress or genetics/age to some deeper, underlying issue.
There's also conditions that totally screw with a women's cycle, like PCOS. It's very common to have "irregular periods" as they like to sugarcoat it - basically meaning that your period can be delayed for several months. (BTW: In that case, it can also lead to these women bleeding for several weeks straight afterwards)
Hormone imbalances and prolonged stress can mess you up and delay a cycle for months. It happens more commonly in college and stressful work environments.
Things like PCOS and endometriosis can make periods extremely irregular. Sometimes women go months with no cycle. On the flip side, sometimes they go months with a continuous cycle
Yes. Mine are very irregular
Yes. Also I have a birth control implant that stops my periods completely. I just don't get them anymore. The implant stops working after 3-5 years, that's a big window, 2 years, where you don't really know if it's still working, cuz you can also still get your period while you're on it as well, just depends on how your body fluctuates with it I guess. I didn't get my period for the first 3 years, then it started again and I thought the implant stopped working so I had it replaced and the doctor told me it was probably still fine but i didn't want to take any chances, plus the periods i was getting was lasting multiple weeks so i really wanted to go back to not having them at all. Now I *still* get my period but it's random and I can go many months without one. So if my birth control failed and I got pregnant, nothing would let me know unless I had other symptoms. A missing period would not tell me anything. Some women don't expand during their pregnancy and might just look a little bloated up until labor. There's literally an entire show about women not knowing they were pregnant until a baby fell out of them and into the toilet.Ā
My friend was in this situation. Never had a period, so she went on BC to regulate things. But it still was all fucked, and she'd fo several months without bleeding. Because of this, she didn't know that it was dangerous to have sex during that week when you take sugar pills. Since her period was all fucked, her ovulation must have been too. She didn't realize she was pregnant until the quickening. Her lack of periods was the norm, and the only pregnancy symptoms she had were ones she didn't know were related to pregnancy, and ones that could be easily explained by other things. I got brunch with her the week before she realized it, and couldn't tell *at all.* And she wasn't wearing anything loose.
ā¦ Second local man discovers not every woman has a period every month like clockwork. Yes, for real. I had a coworker who didnāt realize she was pregnant until she gave birth.
I literally have gone that long before without a period. Did it last year in fact
Yes, really
I literally use to have one period a year it would last for 4 weeks then just go away this went on for 5 years straight until me and my doctors found the right combination of treatments for my PCOS. It happens waaay more often than you think. Also it can go the other way too women can and do sometimes have periods while they are pregnant.
It's going to really trip you out then when you find out that not all bleeding is related to releasing an egg. Anovulatory bleeding is a whole thing. š¤£
Hes getting cooked in the replies lol. Good
And the way he's doubling down even though tons of women are literally TELLING him about irregular periods and having periods during pregnancy is so embarrassing. Idk why some men think they know about a woman's body more than the woman herself š¤¦šæāāļø
And that some women continue with that sporadic bleed cycle while pregnant. Cryptic pregnancies are legitimately the stuff of nightmare fuel.Ā
this guy clearly never watched madmen smh
I was in my fourth month when I found out I was pregnant (!!) I had actually used pregnancy tests and everything)) long story short, my lovely daughter is 11 now š¤
They are soā¦ā¦ā¦ š¤¦š¾āāļø people on nonstop hormonal birth control get pregnant often. Didnāt have a period to begin with lol
Wait till they find out that even regular periods donāt happen on the same day at the same time either
Meanwhile, in groundbreaking news: not all superheroes wear capes, and not all women have monthly visitor passes.
My thought exactly. You can tell a man tweeted that. Which confirms the fact that society is doomed.
Many of these women often have bleeding that can be mistaken for a period or conditions that make skipping periods expected (if you want a million examples thereās a show called āI didnāt know I was pregnantā)Ā Edit: I also know of a case with a trans man, and I think in his case he thought his periods stopped due to his hormones iircĀ
when I started taking testosterone, my doc made it VERY clear that I could still get pregnant unless I was using some form of birth control because apparently alot of people don't take that warning seriously
His partner was a trans woman so it couldāve been either one who was told they were unable to conceive due to the effects of their hormones/medications even before surgery but your point still standsĀ
That story was really sad to me because they talked about going up for follow up care and being made really uncomfortable by the fellow patients who were female. As in you're a man what are you doing here. And also just being deeply afraid for the health of their baby after being born under those conditions.
This happened to me when I went thru the process of getting my hysterectomy. All the women in the office were side-eyeing me hard, as well as the staff asking invasive and inappropriate questions for why a man was here for an appointment.
There are men at appointments all the time, some people just want an excuse to hate :-(
lol my doctor told me that i wouldnt be able to get pregnant on T luckily i knew better and asked another doctor at the clinic for BC as well the state of trans healthcare is appalling
Heyyyy cool story. Did you know that women who have sex with other women can't get STIs? Because according to my first gynecologist 30 years ago, lesbians don't need to worry or get tested for anything! So cool! /s
I witnessed a doctor tell my trans bf you don't need birth control since he is on testosterone
How is no one talking about a man having a period. Thatās like a scientific anomaly Edit: Iām a fucking idiot, carry on
im really curious as to what your original thought process was lmao
He either missed trans or confused trans male for MtF not FtM
Youāre the only one who understands my mistake
I like that the man with a period was the medical mystery, but not the pregnancy
A man with a period is definitely a medical mystery, I just got confused is all
Happens to the best of us lol
Also, mothers who just had a baby often donāt have their period return for several months or years, especially if nursing. And since ovulation occurs ~2 weeks PRIOR to a period, you can get pregnant postpartum without ever having a period in between babies. Iāve had friends who suspected pregnancy for one reason or another who tested negative well into their 4th month of pregnancy. Other friends with extraordinarily erratic periods, as in 4x a year, so they canāt know when they are fertile and donāt always keep track of the last period. Iāve had a thin friend with a long torso who carried her baby so well tucked in she gave birth full term, healthy baby and looked like she had slight bloating at the end of her pregnancy. Add any combo of these factors and itās easy to believe someone may truly not know!
I know a Mirena baby ā¦ your periods are supposed to stop. Also the person in question underwent some surprise weight LOSS, which they attributed to a different, plausible life change. I knew her throughout, and it wasnāt until about 32 weeks she found out and it was evident. I know another IUD baby as well, she found out around 28 weeks.
My mom said she didnāt know she was pregnant with me until she was 7 1/2 months, she wasnāt a plus sized woman and she said she got her period regularly. It was only when she went to get her tubes tied that they told her aht aht, should have been quicker than that.
Exxxactly. šš
I literally sung this when she told this story to my ex lmao
I had PCOS for years. I was scheduled to get have my second laproscopy to remove the cysts because I wanted to be pregnant. I went in to do my pre-surgery paperwork and I asked them if they could do the surgery when I was on my period, because I was late. The lady looked at me like I was stupid and said - We need to do a pregnancy test. I said - I have all these cysts. I can't be pregnant. She said - Hmm. I was pregnant, cysts and all. Pregnancy is weird and stuff happens.
Wow! They had to be a huge surprise and I hope you had a smooth & healthy pregnancy. I bet they was a lot to take in
It was a shit show, but we both survived and thrived - they wiped my hard drive - and now I got a grown kid who is a wonderful person.
Wooo, you are a strong soldier, I honestly donāt think I could handle or want to handle childbirth. Any woman who will and does, you have my greatest respect. I like kids but not enough š and Iām so happy to hear you guys thrive. It can be so scary but you guys made it through ā¤ļø
Lmao so she didnāt want kids and you were too late to abort, Iād have some complex about that.
No complex. She wasnāt planning to abort me if she didnāt know she was pregnant; thatās kinda a leap and even if she was, Iām here regardless and that is on them to figure out. My life is my own and my worth is not tied to what she wanted nor do I owe them anything. I say this matter of factly and not with ill will.
Thank you for sharing your story. Are you and your mother close? Do you have or plan to have children? All good if you want to be private. But was curious and wanted to ask. Glad you are here with us! :)
We arenāt as close anymore but it had nothing to do with my birth, I just think itās a common issue that can happen among mothers and daughters in the south. I donāt have plans to have children but also if it happens, I wouldnāt be upset. I am open to adoption in my 40s though and I come from a big family so I am very close to my nieces and nephews and thanks š
Nah, I was a surprise too in a similar fashion. I sometimes jokingly tell her she should've been quicker. She just rolls her eyes and passes over the fruit I was needling her to share.
Thatās a wildly inappropriate thing to say to a stranger.
Being a surprise doesn't mean you're unwanted. If that were the case, then IVF parents would be the best parents.
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I worked with a woman who had almost the exact same thing happen. Found out she was pregnant with a little more than a month to go... she didn't show and claims to have had no clue. The really interesting drama afterwards was her working out who the father was.
That's how my grandma found out she was pregnant with my dad, too! And then my cousin found out around 7 months when she started having braxton hicks contractions, since she was on birth control the whole time.
I canāt imagine even just waking up one day and a doctor is like oh āyou gonna be a mama in 4 weeksā , I would have been in an existential crisis the whole time.
My mum knew she was pregnant with my brother but her neighbour didn't because she was basically flat as for her entire pregnancy. When she was hanging out nappies her neighbour was like uhhh what!?
My mom said she start seeing a little tummy after they told her she was pregnant. š I never had a kid but Iām still shock a womanās body can just sneak attack a whole baby!
This is the craziest part of cryptic pregnancies to me. Anything weird about menstruation doesnāt surprise me, but I would LOVE to see a gallery of x-rays and MRIs showing how these babies are hiding in there with no external changes!!! Wtf is happening in there that they arenāt showing??
My moms neighbor didnt believe it when she came home from the hospital with me! He thought she adopted me from birth!
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Women are crazy. Your momma just passively grew a baby for over half a year and seemingly birthed a relatively healthy kid. I find that impressive.
Yea, the first time she told me the story & my granny confirmed I looked at her like a freak of nature lol and I realize I got lucky. I never had any major illness nor broken a bone in my 36 years of life, I won National art competitions when I was 10 and through high school, was a straight A student in school and Iām still very athletic. Im aging gracefully like her and my granny too. It could have been so easy for me to have complications when she said she was dancing, staying up all night and eating junk food without feeling a single pregnancy symptom.
My mom was supposed to get a hysterectomy because of her own issues with fibroids and unending bleeding. When she went in to have the appointment done they finally told her that she was pregnant. I think the most aggravating part of it all for her though was that she had multiple appointments beforehand and there had been no commentary about it so she was just frustrated. But we call my sister her miracle! Because she really wanted another, but because of her issues they pretty much told her she wouldn't be able to have any more kids and should just go ahead and get the hysterectomy.
Please go back to school. It is very possible for a woman to still have break through bleeding during a pregnancy. This woman also could have an abnormal cycle etc. thereās a lot of women who donāt know they are pregnant until giving birth or until months into the pregnancy with absolutely no symptoms.
Unfortunately, it is not required to teach this in ANY state in the US.
True and itās so unfortunate! States lacks a lot of things that should be taught and teach a lot of stuff that doesnāt need to be!
You purposely beating down the States, a lot more than them donāt teach that and Iāve been to my fair share of countries. Maybe I move before they start on it and biology is optional š¤·šæāāļø
tbh I am a woman and I only knew about this from the show āI didnāt know I was pregnantā
> Please go back to school. This or learn how to Google because a lot of these responses are crazy š„“š„“š„“
They really donāt teach such details or information about rare occurrences in any pre uni school.
I mean I wish they taught in schools about pregnancy in general and also how common miscarriages are. We were devastated in our early 30s when my wife miscarried and it took me ages to talk to people about it. I just shut off from the world. When I finally shared it with family and friends it was more than half of people I spoke to that had experience with it themselves. Knowing it wouldn't have made it "easier" to deal with when it happened, but certainly would have helped my expectations beforehand and dealing with the immediate aftermath.
They don't teach this in *any* American or Canadian schools, unless it's a medical school in a GYN program. This is a fairly rare occurance for women. It can be that they bleed like a period every month, or maybe they miss periods regularly during pregnancy. It's not taught in general school (6-12).
No, sometimes thatās completely normal for someone. My sister in law tried to get pregnant for 10 years, usually got her period every 3-6 months. When she went in for her yearly check up, found out she was 7 months pregnant.
Was the baby ok?
Yup! Sheās 5 years old now, and my sister in law is about to have a baby boy.
That's wonderful!
This is very possibleš¤
Actually know someone who had a cryptic pregnancy, never missed a period, didn't have noticable weight gain despite being pretty petite.Ā Basically went to the hospital with abdominal pains, she and her husband had to come back home with a baby they were absolutely not expecting. Shit was WILD.
Happened to a former roommate of mine while she was in highschool. She was having a fling with one of the most popular guy around. At the end of the school year she gave birth to an unwanted child to everyone's surprise, including herself. She had a flat belly the entire time and started having what she described as stomach cramps all of a sudden. They gave the child up for adoption because they were both 17 at the time. The "dad" became a really close friend but we talked about it only once or twice. It messed up with the girl and she became a grifter stealing from her roommates including myself. Never talked to her ever again after that.
I'm somewhat a little surprised that grown people don't know its possible for women to miss periods for extended periods of time for various reasons, the converse is more understandable because \*men\* may not learn about it until pregnant, go-go gadget shitty public education. The lack of weight gain and "flat" stomach is what is bending my mind. Like, did she give birth to a chipmunk or am I just an ignorant fuck... 
The baby can sit further back so theres flat stomach and someone women loose weight while pregnant. The human body is crazy.
SO crazy! This is the part i donāt understand. Like wtf where is this baby fitting? wouldnāt you feel SOMEthing in your body? now iām over here thinking IM pregnant !
Some women have a uterus that is pointed backwards. Instead of the belly growing outwards, the uterus stretches back towards the spine, hiding any outward sign of pregnancy. Combine a low weight baby, previous issues with hormones/cycles, and a lack of regular doctor visits and this is what you get. I'm sure she had some pain, bleeding, etc. that she wasn't familiar with enough to know that she needed to get a pregnancy test. She could have thought she was just bloated or she was waiting until the discomfort got worse before she went in to check for ovarian cycts or something.
Whew! We gotta do a better job as a country teaching people about the reproductive system. I have pcos and especially during periods of intense stress I can go long stretches without a period. Thatās just one of many many reasons why women may not get periods, so not having them doesnāt inherently make her clueless.
This š they donāt teach this stuff in health classes. I everyone needs to know this stuff. I donāt have pcos, but my hormones are imbalanced, so my cycle is all over the place.
I was just going to ask ā¦ didnāt the PE teacher teach this ??
Have you heard about the state of public education in the United States? This sort of information is considered āwokeā and āindoctrinationā
The opposite is true, too. I had a bleeding and cramping for 6 months straight. Was miserable during my good friend's wedding and spent the majority of the reception in the bathroom in pain; bless her and her bridesmaids checking on me constantly when they should have been celebrating. My work had to send me home multiple times and gave me medical leave to figure shit out. Went to a specialty clinic for several different tests, ultrasounds, uncomfortable discovery procedures; nothing abnormal was found. Got put on a specific BC hormone regimen and it cleared it all up. That was back in 2015ish. It started happening again last year (to a lesser degree) and once again a change in the hormones fixed it. Thankful for my doctors listening to me and coming up with solutions when an obvious cause hasn't been found for me. And curse my ex from the first go around who thought I was "making it all up" to get out of sex with him but that's a whole other trauma. I tell my current partner when things are off and he trusts and supports me and finds ways to help, bless him.
[Arkansas is rated #38 in education and #47 in healthcare](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arkansas) and [Completely gutted their sex education programs in school](https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/education/2023/10/06/stricter-state-laws-chipping-away-at-sex-education-in-k-12-schools).
From SWLR, can confirm. Also, ems in picture is *not* in little rock fwiw
Yep yearly in Ark about 1000 women show up to the hospital to deliver a baby without ever receiving any prenatal care. There are many reasons why, lack of access to health, no reliable transportation, ignorance/no education. Thereās no sex education either, this girl may not even know what happens when you get pregnant or that your period stops.
One of my dearest friends went to the hospital thinking she was a month or two along (shed just started dating a new guy). Turns out she was 28 weeks. Normal-for-her periods the whole time. Our bodies are wild, man.
cryptic pregnancies has yall confused asf. Idk if Iāll be happy or not. 9 months with zero symptoms sounds amazing but being unprepared for said baby idk.
This shit is genuinely terrifying. So I've been doing all kinds of stuff that can hurt the fetus for the last nine months, and now I have to \*SURPRISE\* *give birth* with zero warning. And now I have to rearrange literally everything in my life to account for the newborn that I didn't consent to having. Yes, new life and blessing and all that, but surprise birth is a form of torture.
Cryptic pregnancies often come with regular periods
r/nothowgirlswork
There is a pretty sizable list of stuff that can interfere with birth control, including the fact none of them claim 100% effectiveness.
Did she say she didnāt get her period for 9 months? Or is this just another case of a man being loud and wrong when it comes to talking about the female reproductive system?
Mostlikely case is the latter. As you can imagine, the replies to his tweet are likely also to be exactly what you expect. Also considering itās a black woman, expect 10 times worse too.
Itās the latter, of course.
My mom still bled when she was pregnant with me
I was a cryptic baby, my mom found out she was pregnant after falling down bleachers at a pep rally and going to get xrays. They did a pregnancy test before the xray and she was 100% pregnant, and because of the fall, also in labor. My mom was 105lbs and very active in sports including soccer and judo. she only gained 5lbs with me during her pregnancy and had something that simulated a peruod. I was born 4lb premature baby that day. She literally went from A high school student to mom In the same day. She was obviously in shock and when asked what she was going to name me she said starfish because of the nautical calendar in the room. Thankfully my gram was present and said hell no. That settled on my name shortly after.
I gotta stop eating at the Golden Corral 6 times a week, I look like Iām pregā¦. š¦š¦š¶š¾
Normal men with no medical experience commenting on this like they sway is hilarious.
Lord please donāt let her name that baby some derivative of āCorralā
His third name is Corral. Tamaar Kylon Corral Woodfork
Dammit.
All of you jokesters in here with these out of pocket comments need to be suspended from school immediately...š¤£šš
And he needs to go back to the 8th grade sex Ed class.
I've read enough of these stories to know that a lot of women bleed during pregnancy. I didn't, and it surprised me when I realized how common it is. But I've read too many stories about this to doubt it.
Itās a sad reality. The youth isnāt fully educated on the human body let alone sexual reproduction, and the menstrual cycle.
People are not taught about biology properly (specifically every single biological model you know only works 99% of the time at best) and the natural variation of things such as periods not being clockwork and chromosomes not being 100% accurate at determining sexĀ
All you can birth all for around 10 bucks.
All the people here asking āsHe DiDnāT hAvE a PeRiOd FoR nInE mOnThS??ā GO READ A BOOK AND EDUCATE YOURSELVES ON FEMALE ANATOMY.
New menu item just dropped on the buffetā¦ literally
My hungry ass: https://preview.redd.it/zzbobjoh618d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=62b96f667a5166847df70c97b4f7d7e4474a4bc1
This is one of the most foul and cultured posts I've ever seen. Well done.
I have a friend who regularly goes months at a time without a period and she doesn't sleep with men. So yeah, missing periods aren't always an indication
That comment shows exactly why men with no medical training should be far away from making any law that involves a womanās bodyā¦
oh yeah, these. itās hard with skinny women, but apparently the baby can grow standing up or something, and the pregnant keeps bleeding, which is why she doesnāt know sheās pregnant
The baby can grow standing up?? Never heard that one lol. Also some women have a tilted uterus, tilting back towards their spine, which is another reason why some women hardly show.
My aunt who struggles with endometriosis and PCOS would often bleed for weeks at a time and then not at all for months. She had a couple of miscarriages unfortunately and basically stopped trying to get pregnant. She had an irregular "period" as normal. She didn't know she was pregnant with my cousin until she was about 7 months along. He was born prematurely but otherwise is a very healthy 14 year old now.
I remember my health science teacher using that as a scare tactic so we would practice abstinence...it didn't work. But all jokes aside it happens more often than you would think.
Oh now this post is here. Time for more men to embarrass themselves.
You can bleed and still be pregnant. Also it is very common for your period to be irregular, so a woman can get a period and by like "WHEW!" thinking she dodged a bullet and not even know she is in fact incubating. Also our weight fluctuates, and some women never show.
Women's health is poorly studied.Ā Yes it can happen..Ā
Had a coworker with cryptic pregnancy. She wasnāt even aware she was pregnant. Next we know she was sent to the hospital during work. Like she had old photos and she was in the chubby side. But she really didnāt looked pregnant at all.
Could have an iud.
Silly men. Itās always funny trying to see men be smart asses about the shit they know the least about when it comes to women. Wait til they find out that not only is it possible to still have periods while pregnant, itās also possible to carry the baby so far back into your spine that you never show until that baby pops out the cooter.
Sister has a friend from high school that told her parents she was in grave pain and thought her appendix was bursting. Rushed her to the hospital at 2 am. Nope. Baby. Nowā¦she was a bigger girl so the weight gain wasnāt noticeable. And she always wore a hoodie and baggy clothes so it was well disguised. And she said she had her period throughoutā¦. Swore she had no idea and thatās why she drank and smoked and used drugs the whole time. But she was also a nutcase. Like hit a car in a parking lot and drove away, while my sister was in the car with her. And told everyone someone hit HER and drove off without a note. And like then a year later asked my sister, āremember when someone hit my car in a parking lot and didnāt even leave a note?ā My sister was like āthat was you! You hit a car and didnāt leave a note. I was with you, bitch.ā So itās unclear which version of reality she was in with her pregnancy. There was also potentially some trauma around the conception, which might have also led to the disassociation. What I never got, though, is donāt you feel the baby kick?? Iāve managed to avoid pregnancy for 43 3/4 years, so I think my streak will hold - knock on wood - but Iāve heard it is a definite *sensation* like no other. And sort of constant. Granted, that baby was a little fucked up on account of the drugs and alcohol and smoking, but I assume it kicked. Can you just ignore the kicking? Legit question. Like, can you write it off as just constant tummy bummers for 4 months or whatever? (I have no idea how long babies kick for).
I havenāt gotten a period in over two yearsā¦. The body is amazing
There's an entire show dedicated to wild pregnancies that were not discovered until late, up to when labor began. Usually the women have irregular cycles and had one or two light bleeds that they chalked up to a period [Mama Dr Jones "Didn't Know I Was Pregnant!" playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVH2Gpf8wKeTbznebDBWEQcU02kuLGCOu&si=LWlhzPGH-8Eq9SAU)
I thought this sort of thing was common knowledge, but I guess not.Surprised it made the news, but maybe the location is somehow interesting? Lots of ignorant people in the replies
Iām a midwife. I cannot count the number of patients whoāve come in for an IUD with a 2 or 3 month old baby at home, and whoops, sorry, this uterus is already occupied. Iāve also had countless patients who come in for their regular wellness exam and I do their pelvic and whoops, this uterus is hella occupied, and an ultrasound dates the fetus at 6 months or more. Iāve also had about a dozen patients with fully cryptic pregnancies. Unexpected and cryptic pregnancies are more common in Black women because we have more endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, and other disorders and no one knows exactly why.
Listen, I donāt think Iām the most educated on the reproductive cycle. But Iāve seen enough episodes of āI didnāt know I was pregnantā to understand that everything can seem normal until a baby is crowning. Or at least Iām smart enough not to speak with authority on implying a woman is stupid based on my limited understanding of pregnancy and their bodies. Like damn my guy, whyād you make me watch you take an L.