Possible pregnancy?

[Trvllver]

Hi all! I wanted to ask a few quick questions about the possibility of my girlfriend being pregnant. We've only had sex three times and I've only finished once. We used condoms and birth control. All three times were in december. A week or so after we did it, she started having really bad nausea. Just for the heck of it we did a pregnancy test and it was negative and at around the 10-day mark she took a urine test at the doctor's as part of a routine checkup which also came back negative. Since then, she's had a lot of nausea and headaches, which could be due to her very stressful home life. She had her normal withdrawal 10 to 11 days after we did it, and then a lighter one the next month. However this month she skipped her withdrawal bleed. I've read on some websites that it's not unusual to have one to two periods when u r pregnant so skipping this one and having a light one this month was nerve racking. We did another pregnancy test at about 1 month and then one a few weeks back and all of them came back negative but I've heard they can be wrong due to the hook effect. Is that a thing that happens very frequently? I've read varying accounts. Between the nausea, between the nausea which seems to only be getting worse, the headaches, and the skipped withdrawal bleed, I'm worried that something may have gone wrong with the testing and that she might actually be pregnant. Help!

[Sam W]

Hi Trvllver,

So, while it's possible to have a false negative (or a false positive) pregnancy test, taking multiple ones and having them all come back negative means you can assume that's the correct result. Too, someone who is pregnant will not get their period or their withdrawal bleed (if they're on birth control that has one); implantation bleeding and decidual bleeding can be mistaken for a period, but they aren't one. Since she experienced this bleeding at the time she was expecting her withdrawal bleed, then it's safe to assume that's exactly what it was: her withdrawal bleed.

Given all that, plus the fact that it sounds like you used multiple methods of contraception correctly, you can safely assume she's not pregnant.

[Trvllver]

Hi! Just checking in the ask about the possibility of the hook effect skewing the tests? Her nausea has been pretty bad the last few months, coinciding nicely with the time the risk occurred.

[Latha]

Hi Trvllver!

While nausea is a notable symptom of being pregnant, pregnancy isn't the only or even the most common cause of feeling nauseous. The hook effect is very uncommon, so it is unlikely that it could be causing false negative test results. Also, as Sam said, it looks like you used multiple methods of contraception correctly, and your girlfriend has mostly been getting her withdrawal bleeds as expected. So, you don't need to worry.

If your girlfriend is still concerned about this and wants reassurance, visiting a gynecologist might not be a bad idea.

[Trvllver]

Hi! So I think the situation has resolved itself, she had an unusually heavy bleed so I know I should be reassured but my brain refuses to accept that she isn't pregnant, bleeding or no. Besides the pregnancy crisis companion and the chicken soup for the soul, do you have guides I could go to to help with the irrational fear?

[Willa]

Hi Trvllver,

It seems as though this has been very stressful for you. Would you say you experience genera anxiety or is this something you feel especially anxious or worried about often? One source I can recommend to start with is https://www.scarleteen.com/about/pregna ... -resources. There are a lot of sources here so I would recommend starting with the section that starts with "Education about how human reproduction works..." The sources were specifically made for people who are dealing with the same fears and anxieties you are dealing with. If there is anything in the sources you would like to discuss or ask questions about, please let us know.