Scarleteen

Hey girl. Me and my boyfriend have sex quite often and I started on birth control on March 17th. Up until last month I had perfect use and never missed a pill. In June I missed one pill it was the 10th pill in the pack and I was about 23/24 hours late. I took it as recommended and didn’t have sex for a while. I skipped my break and avoided the bleed due to my holidays and I also changed taking my pill from night till the morning. Me and my boyfriend had sex last week but we always use a condom. Way before the missed pill we had sex but we had breef unprotected for like a minute, other then that he always uses a condom and never finishes. Recently I’ve noticed my belly feels a little more bloated and I have dark brown discharge. I’m really scared of pregnancy but I don’t want to take a pregnancy test. Please help

Hi there, Jellybean.

Alas, the only way to find out if we're pregnant or not that doesn't involve waiting until a pregnancy is so far along that there's nothing to do about it is to take a pregnancy test. Mind, one late pill is highly unlikely to result in a pregnancy, and it sounds like you've also done a pretty good job with condom use, so a pregnancy doesn't seem likely here. That dark brown discharge is most likely old flow left over from something like a little breakthrough bleeding, which is common when people skip placebo weeks/weeks off while using the pill.

But if you want to know if this is or isn't a pregnancy, you're just going to have to take a test. Personally, I think this is the kind of thing anyone who can become pregnant who chooses to engage in the kinds of sex that can create a pregnancy just needs to learn to get comfortable doing, even if it feels uncomfortable: not knowing truly never feels better than knowing, especially when you're feeling scared. We are here in the event that during or after a test you need or want emotional support or help with whatever your result indicates.