QuestionMy wife and I wish to have a baby (we are recently married) but so far, we are not yet pregnant, yet there seems to be some rather perplexing results when my wife menstruates that month after our attempt to get pregnant. She is normally very regular in her cycle. But when we fail to get her pregnant, her period comes either early or late, her menses becomes unusually lumpy and black, and she experiences harsh abdominal pain during the days before menstruation. She indicates that this is severe pain, not just her regular cramps. Afterwards, for the following months, her menses reverts to its regular flow, red color, and cycle. Does this mean that an egg was fertilized but was terminated during that month of our attempt? Our friends seem to think that she was pregnant but stress caused the egg to abort. Would you be able to shed some light on this subject, please?
AnswerIf your wife misses a period (or is late by more than one week for her period) take a pregnancy test. If the test is negative, she was not pregnant. The character, nature, or color of the menstrual bleeding does not indicate fertilization or miscarriage. If you could check her Beta HCG value twice 48 hours apart, a doubling of the results in 48 hours indicates a viable pregnancy, a halving of the results in 48 hours indicates a miscarriage, but a value of less than 5 on each occasion indicates no pregnancy at all. The change in her pain threshhold is not an indication that fertilization took place either.
