Can You Have Your Period and Still Get Pregnant

Knowing Your Own Cycle

For so many women, being familiar with the exact pattern of their menstrual cycle would be like a dream come true. We all read about the 28 days cycle and, when trying to conceive, advice is nearly always based on the assumption that all women have a cycle of 28 days. But the fact that so many women have longer or shorter cycles often throw fertility and attempts to conceive into turmoil.

Half the battle when trying to conceive is understanding when the optimum time is. For those with the ‘perfect’ 28 day cycle, the advice is to concentrate on having sexual intercourse between days 12 and 16 to make absolutely sure that the ‘peak’ day when ovulation occurs is pinpointed.

To calculate your own cycle, the best thing to do is start from scratch. It may take two, maybe even three cycles to get a good average cycle length established, but once this is done things are rarely likely to change. Day one of the cycle is the first day of regular menstrual blood loss, although some women calculate from the first ‘spot’ of blood, this is not a good idea as it can skew you cycle calculations by several days.

For most women, the vaginal secretions during ovulation will alter and become sticky, creamy and viscous, whereas at other times of the cycle it may be watery and much clearer, or not be present at all.

Can You Have Your Period and Still Get Pregnant: Yes and No

A proper period is when menstrual loss is significant and this, on average, lasts between three and five days for most women. The ambiguity starts when some women have an inter-cycle bleed that could be either a slight spotting or a proper loss for maybe just a day. This can be confused as a period and can make it difficult to calculate the right time to conceive.

Those women who have conceived during a time of blood loss are highly unlikely to have achieved this during a proper menstrual period. Women may have inter-cycle bleeding for many reasons, but this tends to be short lived. On the flip side, some women who assume this bleeding is their actual period find themselves at risk of becoming pregnant because they wrongly calculated the ‘safe’ time to have intercourse.

Very few women have a menstrual cycle that is cast in stone and many women have found themselves in ambiguous situations where they are totally unaware what their cycle is up to. If not actively trying to get pregnant, it is not advisable to follow a rhythm method of contraception since relying on key dates in the cycle can be confusing.

Try all the Time

If making serious attempts to conceive, it is best that couples have regular sexual intercourse throughout the menstrual cycle. Some couples prefer not to indulge in sex while the female is bleeding, which is perfectly understandable. It is believed that having regular intercourse throughout the month will ensure that the sperm produced is not stale and that it is at its optimum level of quality and quantity. In short, the more a couple has intercourse, the more likelihood they have of hitting the day of peak fertility.

With regard to women assuming the time of a menstrual period to be a safe time where pregnancy is just not possible, this is an assumption best ignored. Every woman is different and textbook scenarios are not always the best way to support your own actions. So in reality, the answer to the question "can you have your period and still get pregnant" is possibly 'yes' depending on what is defined as a true period and how the complexities of your individual cycle work..