Pregnancy symptoms, late period, but protected sex and during period?

[tristanitee]

Hello, would like to know the opinion of everyone here. Had intercourse on the 4th day of my gf's period with protection. Around that time, I feel like the condom was slowly losing its "lubrication?" and feels like something akin to plastic. Nevertheless, it was working fine, just off putting. .Finished inside the condom, and tested it by running it in tap water with no visible holes. This happened around Aug. 14 (period started Aug10) and she had somewhat regular periods (30 days). She is experiencing weird symptoms connected to preganncy symptoms according to the net.

She is kinda gassy, she said her boobs got bigger, and had sore boobs for a day. She feels also kind of bloated? Belly got bigger according to her. She also feels sick and I really dont want to bring this up to her, bc stress might be also a culprit in her delayed period.

What would be the right move rn? Thanks everyone!
Would like to ease my nerves a bit before getting a pregnancy test tom.

[Sam W]

Hi tristanitee,

So, given the fact that you used a condom for this incident and she had a period after it, it's safe to assume she is not pregnant. Things like bloating, swollen breasts, and other symptoms can be caused by a number of things that are not pregnancy, and you can read more about that here: Chicken Soup for the Pregnancy Symptom Freakout's Soul

Too, given the timing of her last period, and the symptoms she's experiencing, there's a decent chance that what's actually happening is PMS, and her period is due to arrive soon.

[tristanitee]

Hi, i think i worded my post poorly. We had sex on the fourth day of her period(last day of her period, 30 day cycle). Is that a bad time to have intercourse?

[Sam W]

Ah, got it, I think I misunderstood. And no, around the time of a period there's unlikely to be an ovum available to be fertilized in the first place. But, even if there was, you can assume that in this case the condom did what it was supposed to.

Given that intercourse seems to be a source of anxiety for both of you, have you and she talked at all about only engaging in sex where you're both comfortable with the pregnancy risks, if any, involved?

[tristanitee]

The anxiety, i think mainly stems from symptoms she feels, which makes us second guess the protection we used when we did the deed. We have been searching for much safer days to have intercourse, and period sex might be more safe and predictable, rather than having sex, say near the start of her new cycle (less predictable due to possible delays.). This has been our first time doing this in this manner and we are very anxious if we made the right decision.

[Sam W]

So, if you're trying to user fertility awareness--being aware of where in her cycle she is--as an additional method of birth control, that's actually a specific process that needs to be followed in order to provide accurate information about where someone is in their cycle. You can read more about that here: Get With the Flow: All About FAM