Is a Very Short Period a Cause for Concern?

[snowJT]

I don't know where else to ask something like this, but a friend of mine had her period and lasted a day and a half.. and is worried that she could be pregnant... but that's not possible if her eggs dropped because she started her period right?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't know where else to ask something like this, but a friend of mine had her period and lasted a day and a half.. and is worried that she could be pregnant... but that's not possible if her eggs dropped because she started her period right?

Sounds more like a question mark than a period. Sorry, bad joke.

 

[Astronuc]

I don't know where else to ask something like this, but a friend of mine had her period and lasted a day and a half.. and is worried that she could be pregnant... but that's not possible if her eggs dropped because she started her period right?

If the egg had been fertilized, it perhaps missed the opportunity to attach and start the gestation process. IIRC, there is about a 3-5 day window of opportunity for an egg to be fertilized and become a viable embryo.

Perhaps the young woman should do a pregnancy test, or better yet, she should consult her gynecologist to ensure that her state is normal.

 

[Evo]

It is possible that she is pregnant. Not all women miss their periods immediately after becoming pregnant. If it was also light, it could be "implantation bleeding", although that's usually just some staining. It could also be normal, A woman's period is not always the same and stress and too much exercise can actually cause periods to be very light or missed completely.

 

[Moonbear]

I don't know where else to ask something like this, but a friend of mine had her period and lasted a day and a half.. and is worried that she could be pregnant... but that's not possible if her eggs dropped because she started her period right?

As Evo mentioned, it IS possible to have a light/short period when pregnant, especially if there is not yet enough hCG being produced by the conceptus to completely block that bleeding. If that is the case, it is also possible that a home pregnancy test will not be sensitive enough to detect the pregnancy, so she should make an appointment with her doctor for a blood test.

It is also possible she WAS pregnant, and implantation failed, though that typically results in heavier bleeding. Even if that happened, it will be important for her to get an exam to make sure everything that should have been expelled was.

There can be a lot of other reasons for a short period or mis-timed one, most of which are nothing to worry about (again, as Evo mentioned, being under a lot of stress is the most common of them).

In any case, if there is any chance at all that she could be pregnant, she should see her OB/GYN right away. If she had abstained during the entire previous month or so, I'd suggest she just wait a cycle and see if she's normal again before getting worried about what could be nothing. Also, if this is a pregnancy she wants/plans to keep, or is even somewhat undecided about what she will do (this is very often the case for an unplanned pregnancy), she should assume for now that she is pregnant and treat herself accordingly...no alcohol, no drugs (not even over-the-counter medicines until she has clearance from a doctor to take them), no smoking, and she should take a folic acid supplement (it's a vitamin important for neural development and deficient in many women's diets...taking this will help prevent a very serious birth defect).

 

[snowJT]

After talking more about it, this happened two days ago.. nothing much was thought of it, apparently she actually only bleed for half a day (from lunch until bed, and woke up with nothing). This could mean she was spotting possibly correct? She said she has been feeling different.. her mind could be playing tricks on her, she took a test, and it told her to try again. Is it too early to do a test? If her hormones were making her feel the way she was, the test would have been positive, correct?

 

[Evo]

After talking more about it, this happened two days ago.. nothing much was thought of it, apparently she actually only bleed for half a day (from lunch until bed, and woke up with nothing). This could mean she was spotting possibly correct? She said she has been feeling different.. her mind could be playing tricks on her, she took a test, and it told her to try again. Is it too early to do a test? If her hormones were making her feel the way she was, the test would have been positive, correct?

It's possible this was just an odd period and her next will be normal. It could be pregnancy, it could be a number of things, some of which a doctor should be seen about. Sometimes when a woman thinks she may be pregnant, she will actually start to feel and exhibit some of the early symptoms. If she is feeling ok, she can try another home test in a week.

When in doubt, consult a doctor. We cannot diagnose people online, nor do we wish to.

 

[Moonbear]

If her hormones were making her feel the way she was, the test would have been positive, correct?

No, not necessarily. Many of the pregnancy tests available over-the-counter are not sensitive enough to detect a pregnancy until about 1-2 weeks after a missed period. And, for some women, if hCG levels are low, it may not be able to detect the pregnancy at all (this accounts for some of the false negatives on the test). If hCG levels remain low, an OB would want to monitor the pregnancy closely as there's a higher chance of miscarriage.

In case you don't know this already, hCG is an abbreviation for human chorionic gonadotropin. It is a hormone produced by the embryo that signals that a pregnancy has occurred. A metabolite of that hormone found in urine is what the early pregnancy tests measure with the color reaction.

It is best to see an OB/GYN to verify pregnancy regardless of the test results, especially if she's feeling different, which is more often a better sign of pregnancy than the tests (then again, her symptoms could be psychological as well if she's worried she might be pregnant and her symptoms are just stress-induced). In addition to the hCG that can be detected in either urine or blood tests (the blood test is more sensitive than the urine test if hCG is low), there are also some physical changes to the cervix that can help diagnose a pregnancy if the pregnancy test is inconclusive.

 

[snowJT]

She was claiming to feel sick when she discovered the blood coming out too, just wondering if that's a sign of spotting

 

[Astronuc]

Get her to an OB/GYN!

 

[Moonbear]

Feeling sick and having spotting...could be pregnancy, could be symptoms of an infection, could be symptoms of cervical cancer, could be symptoms of stress screwing up her cycles, etc. Has she called her OB/GYN yet? An exam will determine if it's pregnancy (and soon enough that she will have plenty of time to think over what she'll do about it...including keeping the baby and getting proper prenatal care in a timely manner so the baby is born healthy), if it's an infection or symptoms of cervical cancer (caught in early stages, very treatable, and unlikely to have long-lasting consequences...if she's having unprotected intercourse, infection is a very possible culprit), or if it's nothing but a bit of stress (in which case, she'll leave the visit with a clean bill of health and peace of mind that it's nothing to keep worrying about).