Period one week late, have IUD

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-12-2003
Period one week late, have IUD
7
Wed, 02-25-2004 - 11:54pm
Hello everyone... For those who don't already know me, I'm 20, have never had any children and I've had a Copper-T IUD since October 7/03.

Here's the thing: I've had 4 full cycles since I've had my IUD inserted and all of them have been exactly 28 days appart. I should have started this month's period on Friday, February 20th, but AF didnt show. Now its been almost a week (6 days counting the 20th) and AF is still MIA. Starting to wonder about pregnancy...?

I know that my IUD is *very* effective, and I also know that it can take some time to re-establish "normal" cycles once you stop taking Birth Control Pills (which I was on for almost 4 years prior to Oct/03). The think I'm confused about is that I've had more than 4 months of periods that were exactly right, so this just seems a little odd. Is it common for women who come off the pill to still be fairly regular for a while and then just start being all over the place?

I'm not *terribly* worried about this just yet. I'm pretty confident in my IUD, so the idea of being pregnant doesn't really even register with me. But still, there's this one little nagging thing in the back of my head, you know?

Anywhoo, any comments or advice anyone could offer would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance everyone.

*MG08*

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 02-26-2004 - 12:38am

Hi MG,


Yes, it could be just your period doing a random odd thing - but being a week late, you could definitely take a home pregnancy test to be sure.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 02-26-2004 - 10:17am
I have the Mirena IUD and have had a similar situation....
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2003
Thu, 02-26-2004 - 10:34am
I can tell you the spacing of my periods since coming off the pill last summer. I had been on them for two months less than 10 years.

34, 29, 30, 30, 31, 36, 31, 32 days.

So, after the first one (hardly indicative of much, the first month off hormones, I think), I thought I was settling down to a 30 +/- 1 day cycle, then took 36 to get a period! I was starting to be a little freaked. (Despite the vasectomy, I was getting a tad worried at that point.)

So, yes, it is possible for things to change around even after a few months.

Personally, I love the fact that my cycle is longer than 28 days (less periods per year!) & I also happen to bleed for less days than I did on the pill. Some times I was bleeding for close to 1/2 of my life, now I'm down to more like 10%!!!!! OK, that wasn't relevant to your problem, but I'm still so happy about the fact! (I'm on day 4 of my period right now, day one it started in the evening, & I haven't even spotted yet today!!! I used to often bleed/spot for nearly two weeks at a time.)

I hope this is just your body messing with you MG08, good luck!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2004
In reply to: mattys_girl08
Thu, 02-26-2004 - 10:11pm

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-22-2004
Mon, 03-01-2004 - 10:29pm
OH MY GOSH, this sounds just like me!!! Sorry for the "yelling," but this sounds just like the post I put up here a little more than a week ago. I got the copper IUD September 30, 2003, and my cycles were as follows: 34, 32, 30, 29, then 40 days!!! (before I went on the pill 6 years ago, my longest cycle ever was 35 days.) At first I was so nervous that I might be pregnant, but was going to wait a few days to be sure. I took a home test Saturday (the 21st), and it was negative. I went to the Dr. on Monday (which was a dumb experience--I didn't even see the dr). I did a pee-test; it was negative, too, so they took some blood. They tested that for pregnancy, and also some thyroid test (the nurse was talking so fast I couldn't understand her), but they both came back negative.

I finally got my period on Thursday of last week (the 26th) after a week of some weird spotting. I'm going to see my normal doctor on Monday, just to see if there's anything wrong with me, or if it was just a fluke cycle.

For several days, I really did think I was pregnant. Even though we're not planning on kids for a couple more years, we got used to the idea. We even went as far as to get a little excited. So I was pretty let down when it was confirmed that I wasn't. I'm okay now; talking to my sister with a 6-month old cured me for now.

I hope I made you feel a little better, knowing that you're not alone, even this very moment. Do let us know what the outcome is, okay? There are so many women who really care here.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2004
In reply to: mattys_girl08
Mon, 03-01-2004 - 11:39pm

Good luck!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-22-2004
Tue, 03-02-2004 - 9:55pm
I'm sure that it will get better. I had some pretty bad cramping for the first week, then my first couple periods had really bad cramps, too. I never had cramps until I went on the pill (how backwards is that?), and they only got worse with the IUD. The cramping has definately lessened, but I still get a few pretty strong ones. It is a whole lot heavier than ever, but no longer or shorter, really.