When to take a pregnancy test?

October 31, 2016 10:25 PM

When do you take a pregnancy test if you don't have any periods?

I used to be super against hormonal birth control, but was diagnosed with endometriosis this spring and put on a "pill" called Visanne, which is a gestagen pill. They claim it's not a hormonal birth control pill, but a treatment for endometriosis in order to get health insurers to cover it, but my gynecologist assured me twice that it would work like the pill, which makes sense because it has the same ingredient as protestogen-only mini pills.
I have been super diligent about taking it at the same time every day with the help of my phone alarm, but yesterday I was an hour later than usual.

Since starting this pill, my fiancé and I were in different countries, but now I'm visiting him and we had sex without a condom for the first time. Since this pill has stopped my periods completely, I obviously wouldn't know until much later if I ended up accidentally pregnant, so I want to take a test. I have been staying with my fiancé since October 26 and will leave again on November 16, so I thought it should be some time after that to cover the last time we had sex, but when after November 16? Would the 20th be too early? Or too late considering we had "unprotected" sex on October 26?

posted by LoonyLovegood to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Best answer: The absolute earliest that a pregnancy test will show a positive result is ~2 weeks after implantation, so if you want to be sure I would take a test 2.5 or 3 weeks after the last time you see him if you need to be totally sure. If you feel like that would be too long after the first time, then take a few tests.

But if your doctor told you that this works like hormonal birth control and it had stopped your periods, it is very unlikely (though not impossible) that you will get pregnant, especially if you're as careful as you say with the pills - an hour late one day is unlikely to be a problem.
posted by brainmouse at 10:55 PM on October 31, 2016 [14 favorites]

Just popped in to recommend the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. So much useful information, whether you're trying or trying not to.
posted by jrobin276 at 11:14 PM on October 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you, brainmouse! I researched Visanne online and some women complained about getting pregnant anyway, but I guess you get that with every pill.

Jrobin276, I'm not sure how that would work considering I am artifically suppresing my period? In case you overlooked it, I'm not on the pill for contraception, but due to crippling endometriosis.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 12:58 AM on November 1, 2016

It would teach you a bunch of stuff like what brainmouse is saying, it talks a lot about recognising where in your cycle you might be and exactly how it all works. I know you're on the pill for endo, but it also seems like you're wanting to avoid pregnancy and taking advantage of its contraceptive abilities too. It might help explain how the pill is interacting with your cycle, and give you some other ways to keep tabs on things in lieu of a missed period.
posted by jrobin276 at 2:52 AM on November 1, 2016 [11 favorites]

The earliest you might see a positive result is actually about 2-3 days after implantation, which occurs about 6-9 days after ovulation. (So some variation comes from when implantation happens, and some comes from how fast your HCG levels rise afterwards.) Testing about two weeks after ovulation is pretty safe in that it'll give you a positive result if you are in fact pregnant--the tricky bit is knowing when that might be (given that the pill may/should be suppressing ovulation).

The limiting timing factor in getting pregnant is the egg, not the sperm. The sperm can wait around for up to a week; the egg needs to be fertilized within about 24 hours or it dies. So I concur with brainmouse's overall 3-weeks-from-last-contact estimate: you're waiting a week for the latest possible time fertilization/conception could occur, then another two weeks for it to be picked up on a test.
posted by cogitron at 5:37 AM on November 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Also, just as a practical matter, I'd recommend buying a bunch of cheap pregnancy test strips online. (Link is to one representative retailer but they're all about the same.) They're under 1 USD apiece if you buy in bulk, they work just as well as drugstore tests that cost ten times that, and then for peace of mind you can test weekly (until at least 3 weeks after unprotected sex) without worrying about timing them for perfectly optimal information gain.
posted by cogitron at 5:48 AM on November 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

(Sorry, implantation about 6-12 days past ovulation, not 6-9.)
posted by cogitron at 5:59 AM on November 1, 2016

Argh yes cogitron is of course right about ovulation vs. implantation. Shouldn't post past my bedtime
:)
posted by brainmouse at 6:43 AM on November 1, 2016

Is there any reason why you can't pick up more than one test? At the end of the day you're seeking peace of mind regarding a very unlikely outcome here, not a likely event. So as the sole purpose of doing this is to make you feel better buy as many it takes to achieve that objective.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:18 PM on November 1, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! I'll see if I can buy some tests online (Switzerland and Amazon are a bit of a problem)!
I didn't even think that there'd be some sort of cycle left to measure with the pill, since it completely suppresses my periods and I haven't felt a thing (temperature swings, mood swings, ovulation pain) in months.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 4:22 PM on November 1, 2016

In my view, the time to take a pregnancy test is if you feel some sort of symptoms in 2+ weeks. Odds are good that you're not pregnant. You don't need to take one as prophylaxis.

Save yourself the hassle of getting tests unless you feel something changing in your body that's worth checking out. Even then, you can wait a few days before buying a test, your symptoms might be ephemeral.

You'll get used to this once you go several years without periods.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:49 PM on November 1, 2016

Best answer: As someone with very irregular periods from PCOS who figured out I was pregnant at about 12 weeks in, I can see the value to testing before you feel symptomatic (which you're clearly going to do, but just as a counterpoint to the above). Even at 12 weeks I only figured it out because I was taking the test before going in for an infertility workup thing, not because I had symptoms. Not everyone feels pregnant until pretty far down the line, and if you don't know you're pregnant until out of the first trimester, you miss your window for some of the fetal testing, as well as possibly for termination of the pregnancy if that's something you need.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 10:46 PM on November 1, 2016