Brown Spotting: Causes, Pregnancy & What to Do

Question
Hi! I'm a little concerned due to the fact that this past monday Jan 25 2010 i saw brown spotting, it lasted until yesterday the 27th. I spoke to a lady I worked with and she said I may be pregnant she also said that brown spotting was how her pregnancy began. Before continuing I would like to tell you that I got my 1st birth control shot December of 2008 and I received my last shot March 2009, so I've been off for a while now. I received my 1st period after the shot November 2009. So could I really be pregnant? I hear it takes a year and 6 months to become pregnant after getting off the shot.

Answer
Dear Kolbi,

If you have used no other method of birth control and have been having otherwise unprotected sex, then yes - pregnancy would be a possibility. Every woman is different. Some women can get pregnant within 3 months of coming off the birth control shot, while for others it can take 2-3 years.

On the other hand, the symptoms you describe, as with most symptoms of pregnancy, are hormonal in nature and can also be related to hormone fluctuations within your cycle. That is why it so difficult to "diagnose" a pregnancy based on symptoms alone.

You will need to test for pregnancy to know for sure. Although some tests claim accuracy on the first day of a missed period, I usually suggest that women wait until the week after a missed or spotty period before testing for pregnancy. This tends to minimize the incidence of false negative results and also avoids wasting money on a test for a simple delay of a period by a few days. When/if you test make sure to use 1st morning urine to get a concentrated sample for the most accurate results. For you, since you do not have regular periods coming off the shot, it will be harder to determine timing of periods. Therefore, If those results are negative, you can have your doctor's office do a quantitative blood pregnancy test (serum beta hCG). That test will give an actual amount of hCG in your bloodstream rather than just a positive/negative result. Any amount of 25 mIU/ml or more would be considered positive for pregnancy.

I hope this has helped you and answered your question. I wish you well.

Brenda