Aunt Vadge: my period is 10 days late – am I pregnant or is it something else?

Hi Aunt Vadge, 

My period is 10 days late. What should I do now? I had sex with my boyfriend on 7 January, and my last period was on 14 December. My bf has used condom and sperm has not come out – I took the sperm in my mouth. My period is delayed by 10 days. Please say what should I do – please help me.

Sincerely,
Late
_____

Dear Late,

14 December – last period began
7 January – sex with a condom
23 January – still no period

That makes your cycle length 41 days long, which is unusual. The first thing I would do is buy yourself a home pregnancy test, and see if you are pregnant. If you are not pregnant, you will need to see a doctor anyway, since 41 days is too long. Your cycles are considered normal if they are between 24 and 35 days long. When your periods stop for some reason, it is called secondary amenorrhoea. This is just a name; it doesn’t really mean anything except that your periods stopped.

Reasons you may stop getting your period include being too skinny to ovulate (you need your fat cells for your hormones), exercising too much (which can cause too few hormones to be produced or retained in your body), producing too many androgens, like in polycystic ovarian syndrome, dieting, or there may be something going on with one or both of your ovaries, causing you not to ovulate, and therefore not triggering the hormonal cascade that causes a period.

If you used a condom, and the condom did not break, and no pre-cum was on or around your vagina, then it seems more likely that another problem is the case. It’s impossible to get pregnant if no semen was near your vagina. This means it has to be something else.

Go do the pregnancy test, and then if it’s negative, you should make an appointment with a doctor to examine you and do some tests. Print out this list, go through everything carefully, and see if you can find any other symptoms that match.

Also, maybe nothing is wrong, and it will resolve itself across your cycle. Sometimes we just skip a period, and nobody knows why. It doesn’t have to be a disaster! Keep your cool until you have more information – there are so many reasons for a skipped period, some serious, but others very benign, so try to relax and do your investigations.

Write anytime.

Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge