Am I Pregnant
A decade back, a suspected woman would enter the gynec doctor's chamber to get a clinching diagnosis of whether she was pregnant or not. In the years to come, thanks to the internet revolution and the availability of over-the-counter pregnancy test kits, the doctor is nearly forgotten!
There are pluses and minuses to this new era, where diagnosing a pregnancy is easy but not one hundred percent accurate. Take, for example, a woman whose menstrual cycle is long. Her probable time of ovulation (release of the female egg) is a little late, and so the test is negative.
If you wait for a few more days, the same woman will have a positive test. So, timing is very important. In a regularly menstruating woman, a good-quality test will be positive by 32 days from the last menstrual period. If your test is negative, it does not rule out pregnancy. Wait until your period ensues or repeat the test after 72 hours.
Whenever there is confusion, the best course of action is a visit to a gynec doctor. He/She has years of expertise to clinically judge and, if necessary, sonographically confirm your status—pregnant or non-pregnant.
The biggest concern, to my mind, is young girls having sexual relationships without precaution and then missing their period. She is very anxious and worried. She will do everything to get an early diagnosis and, if the need arises, and if she is pregnant, to get rid of it.
She may buy a cheap pregnancy test kit, may not get the correct report, and then end up in a messy affair. Take the example of a girl who has missed her period and whose pregnancy test is negative. She will be happy for a few days, but once she still does not get her period, she becomes worried once again. Most of the time, she is clueless.
Three things happen after taking her boyfriend's opinion:
1) Repeat her test with the same quality test kit or a better one.
2) Take some medicines to get her period.
3) Take the opinion of a learned gynecologist.
The best course of action is to visit a gynec doctor, but she does not do that. She repeats the test, which is once again negative. She immediately takes some pills (often advertised on TV channels or in newspapers), which do not work (because she is not pregnant), and then takes the opinion of experienced friends and tries another set of medicines, which, alas, also do not work!
The great gamble of getting her period is not over. Suppose she takes a set of prostaglandin tablets when she is not pregnant. It will not work, but it may cause a life-threatening situation if she is asthmatic. Similarly, if she takes OCP pills when the test is negative but she is actually pregnant, her pregnancy may be in the fallopian tube, yet to descend into the uterus. Another catastrophe may occur, and she may end up with an ectopic pregnancy and grievous complications.
So, what is the lesson to be learnt? Nausea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps, along with a missed period, do not necessarily mean there is a pregnancy. Let your diagnosis be made by a gynec doctor, and let there be a systematic evaluation. An early pregnancy test or an early sonography may give a wrong interpretation.
And a word of caution: The most advertised drugs for the termination of pregnancy have serious complications. They may kill you or may destroy your reproductive ability. Let your experienced doctor take the decision, not an advertisement in a newspaper, TV channel, or internet site.
