To my knowledge women don’t have periods when they’re pregnant. How come some don’t find out they’re pregnant till several months into the pregnancy? My mother said she still had her periods for 5 months when she was pregnant with my sister. How is that possible?
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Lots of things can affect someone’s menstrual cycle and some people’s are already irregulal. If you aren’t actively keeping track you might not notice how long it’s been since your last period or know when you were supposed to have one. You might notice your gaining weight and assume that that’s affecting your cycle which can happen.
As for your mother specifically, she could have been bleeding for other reasons including some due to her pregnancy.
It’s pretty common to have some light bleeding during the first trimester. Someone might mistake this for a very light period.
Other people have very irregular periods and might go months between them, in that case not getting one for awhile might not seem unusual. One thing that often causes this is PCOS.
Doctors often tell women with PCOS that it will be very difficult for them to get pregnant, so it makes sense that women might not expect an accidental pregnancy under these circumstances.
Combine that with the fact that not every pregnancy comes with crippling symptoms and you can end up in a situation where someone is only finding out mid second trimester.
I have no idea how anyone makes it full term without knowing though. That has to involve a huge amount of denial.
The menstrual isn’t always regular. It can be delayed by anything from taking a medication to just straight up life stress. And if you’re stressed enough that it physically affects your body that much, you might not have time to realize how long it’s been since your last period. And as others have pointed out already, there can be bleeding for other reasons that aren’t due to a menstrual cycle that might be perceived as just period stuff.
Our bodies are complicated messes.
Edit add: And sexual education in many places is downright garbage, if you’re lucky enough to live in an area where it even exists at all.
Some conditions (to my knowledge, adenomyosis) on the uterine lining will continue the bleeding.
Basically if they were irregular before it’s unlikely they’ll notice any change.
Also, some women just straight up don’t show until way into a pregnancy, so you can be pregnant and bleeding and not showing and attribute other symptoms (like morning sickness) to common maladies like the flu, keeping them out of a more experienced eyes that can see it
Because of the way they count pregnancy weeks, it’s not even possible to know for sure that you’re pregnant until you’re a month into it already.
Add in the possibility of sporadic bleeding in early pregnancy, it’s pretty possible to ho another few months not knowing, especially if you weren’t expecting to get pregnant (like if you used birth control and don’t realize it failed). Not everyone gets sick, and for some they just assume they picked up a stomach bug or ate some bad food and just can’t shake it.
All that’s for people who actually have a passing knowledge of pregnancy. Some people barely know anything about their bodies or how periods and pregnancy work, so they’re even less likely to realize something is off.
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