Patient's question:
Female, 26 years old, has been feeling lower back pain and a heavy sensation in the abdomen these past two days, but it's not too severe, occurring about two or three times a day. Unsure what this could be. How can one determine if they are pregnant if they still have their period?Doctor's answer:
Theoretically speaking, after pregnancy, menstruation should not occur anymore, because we know that after the fertilized egg implants, the level of estrogen in our bodies is very high. Therefore, throughout the entire pregnancy, there should be no menstruation. However, some women may experience spotting after pregnancy, and this spotting is not menstruation. For example, during early pregnancy, the first thing we need to rule out is whether it is threatened miscarriage. Then, we can provide possible treatments to support the pregnancy, such as performing a fetal heart monitoring test. If the embryo is not developing well and there are some signs of bleeding, we may consider that this pregnancy could ultimately result in a miscarriage. Therefore, for such cases, we might use medication-induced abortion or artificial abortion methods to help the embryo be expelled.