Can you be pregnant right before your period

Yes, especially if she has a menstrual cycle that is only about 20 days long. Sperm can live in a woman’s reproductive tract for about six days. A woman releases an egg from her ovaries about 14–16 days before the first day of her period. So if a woman with a 22-day cycle gets sperm in her vagina on the first day of her period, it may still be there when the egg is released on day six of her cycle. This could cause pregnancy. Because young women often have irregular periods, it is difficult for them to predict if their periods are going to be long or short. So it’s always best to use protection.

The morning-after pill (also known as emergency contraception) is a safe and effective way to prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. It can be started up to five days (120 hours) after unprotected intercourse.

The brands Plan B One-Step and Next Choice are available from drugstores and health centers without a prescription for women and men 17 and older. A new brand, ella, is available by prescription only. If you are interested in getting emergency contraception and are 17 or older, you can either get it directly from a Planned Parenthood health center or from your local drugstore. If you are younger than 17, you’ll need to go to a health center or private health care provider for a prescription.

The best way to prevent pregnancy is by using birth control. Learn more about your birth control options.

Most likely you will not get pregnant having sex while on your period. That’s because your ovulation time is several days away decreasing any chances of getting pregnant during this time. However, there are exceptions. This applies to women who have a typical 28 to 30 day or longer cycle. If you have a shorter cycle, say every 21 to 24 days, that means you are ovulating earlier in the cycle. Because sperm can live inside you for up to 5 days, you could have sex towards the end of your period and then conceive 4 or 5 days later with your early ovulation.

The probabilities of getting pregnant during your period are low, but the possibilities are there. This is not the time to have sex if you are trying to get pregnant.

Can You Get Pregnant Right After Your Period?

You are moving into your fertility window, so yes, you can get pregnant right after your period. On a typical cycle that occurs every 28 to 30 days, the fertility window is usually between Day 11 and Day 21.  Remember, sperm can live up to 5 days. If your period (bleeding time) lasts for 5 to 7 days, and you have sex right after that, you are approaching your fertility window.

Can You Get Pregnant on the Last Day of Your Period?

If you stop bleeding on Day 6, have sex on Day 7 and ovulate on Day 11, it’s possible the sperm from Day 6 will be waiting in your fallopian tubes for conception. Your chances of conceiving right after your period increase each day after your bleeding has stopped. If you are trying to conceive this is a good time to have sex. Increase your chances of conception by having sex every other day for the next 14 days.

What About Right Before Your Period?

The likelihood of getting pregnant right before your period is extremely low. For women with a typical 28- to 30-day cycle or longer and their cycles are regular, it is fairly safe to say your ovulation occurred between Day 11 and Day 21. The egg is only available for 12 to 24 hours for conception.

This means the days right before your period are the safest to have sex without the expectation of getting pregnant. The number of “safe days” right before your period go up with longer cycles and lessen with shorter cycles.

If you wait 36 to 48 hours after ovulation, you should be beyond the possibilities of conception. The further you are from ovulation, the less likely your chance for conceiving. This is not the time to have sex if you are trying to conceive.  It’s still a good time to enjoy intimacy with your partner.

Bottom Line

A woman’s ovulation cycles can vary, so it’s statistically possible you could become pregnant while on your period. While pregnancy is less likely in the earlier days of your period, the chances increase in the later days.

If you’re trying to become pregnant and haven’t conceived after a year or more of having unprotected sex, download our new e-book The Ultimate Fertility Resource Guide. It’s a free download and has the essential information and tips you need to improve your fertility and get pregnant faster.

Can you get pregnant right before your period? This is a frequently-Googled period question, the answer to which hinges on hope or relief depending on whether or not you’re aiming to conceive.

So let’s break it down. But first let’s clarify some words:

• “Getting pregnant” = sperm + egg. Pregnancy starts when your egg fuses with a sperm cell—a process called fertilization. It’s not technically considered a ‘pregnancy’ until the fertilized egg nestles into the lining of the uterus and starts growing—a process called implantation.
• “Right before” = sometime during your luteal phase—the 10 to 16 days between ovulation and your period, when PMS happens.
• “Your period” = the shedding of your uterine lining, indicating that no fertilized egg has cozied into it, and you aren’t pregnant.

Can you get pregnant right before your period?

It’s very unlikely. (*but there are exceptions, see below.)

You can only get pregnant during your fertile window—the six or so days per menstrual cycle that you’re fertile. Your fertile window occurs before and during ovulation—when your ovaries release an egg.

It only takes a few minutes to release an egg from your ovary. Once released, your egg has about 24 hours to live. Your fertile window is six days long, rather than just those 24 hours, because sperm can survive in the uterus for up to five days, ready to fertilize an egg should one be ovulated.

You only ovulate once per menstrual cycle. (In rare cases, you may release more than one egg per ovulatory episode, and may conceive twins. But then you cannot ovulate again until next your cycle.)

It’s typical to ovulate around day 14 of your cycle (about 14 days after the first day of your period). But this is just the norm, not the rule.

Ovulation is always followed by a luteal phase lasting about 2 weeks, followed by a period (if you’re not pregnant). Even for people with cycles longer than the typical 28 days, the luteal phase still lasts about 2 weeks, and a longer follicular phase—the phase before ovulation—accounts for the extra days.

To estimate your ovulation day, identify the day of your cycle you started bleeding heavily (spotting doesn’t count), then subtract 14 days. The closer your ovulation day to the day you had unprotected sex, the greater your chances of getting pregnant.

But if you’re concerned (or hopeful) about getting pregnant a few days before your period, odds are ovulation is long over, your fertile window has closed, and the likelihood of pregnancy is low.

Say you had unprotected sex on day 21 of your cycle: about 7 days after your ovulation day, and about 7 days before your period started. By one study’s estimate, there’s a 5% chance you were fertile on that day. (But just because you were fertile doesn’t mean your partner was as well.) The odds continue to drop off each day after that.

And a 5% chance of getting pregnant on day 21 of your cycle is a conservative estimate compared what other researchers have found:

Ovulation doesn’t happen in all menstrual cycles. Anovulatory cycles—menstrual cycles in which ovulation did not occur, are relatively common; one study estimates about a third of otherwise “normal” menstrual cycles are anovulatory. You cannot get pregnant during an anovulatory cycle, as it offers no egg to fertilize.

No matter your chances of pregnancy, conventional at-home pregnancy tests (the ones you pee on) are a fairly reliable way to know for sure if you’re pregnant or not.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Many home pregnancy tests claim to be accurate as early as the first day of a missed period—or even before. You’re likely to get more accurate results, however, if you wait until after the first day of your missed period.”

Waiting a day yields better results because most at-home pregnancy tests are looking for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG)—a hormone your body makes after the fertilized egg attaches to the wall of the uterus. The amount of HCG in your urine rises quickly after implantation, making pregnancy tests more and more accurate with each passing day.

Exceptions: When you CAN get pregnant right before your period

1. If what you think is a period isn’t actually a period. It’s possible to mistake your period for ovulation bleeding, especially if it comes with period-like symptoms. Should you mistake an ovulation bleed for a period, “right before your period” (or at least, what you thought was a period) overlaps with your fertile window, and the likelihood of getting pregnant is quite high.

2. If you have a long fertile window. Ovulation typically occurs around day 14 of a 28-day menstrual cycle, but everyone’s cycle is different. One study found that “most women reach their fertile window earlier and others much later” than day 14.

It’s rare, but you may have a uniquely long, or uniquely late-arriving fertile window. This can occur naturally, or be a result of stress, medications, thyroid disorders, or other conditions. No matter when it occurs, ovulation always presents the possibility of getting pregnant, even if very late in your cycle.

Just note that after fertilization, the egg still needs to be implanted into the uterine wall. That can take a week or more. If you fertilize an egg during a fertile window that is very close to your period, the odds of a failed implantation (and thus a non-pregnancy) increase because the uterine lining is shed during your period, potentially shedding the fertilized egg along with it.

3. If you have irregular cycles. If your period doesn’t arrive regularly each month (if you sometimes get two periods per month, or go a month or more without a period, for example), it can be very difficult to determine when you ovulated, and thus when your fertile window was. At-home ovulation tests can help take the guesswork out of when you’re most likely to become pregnant, especially for those with irregular cycles.

Courtney Mayszak, RDN, LDN is the co-founder of De Lune, who offer an all-natural line of menstrual relief products.

Shop De Lune here!

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Tags: birth, body care, cycles, de lune, doula, egg, fertility, fertilization, lifestyle, mama glow, maternal health, menses, menstruation, motherhood, period, period health, pregnancy, reproductive health, self care, sperm, wellbeing Can you get pregnant 3 days before your period?

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