Hey ,

I am almost 30 years old, and 6 months ago I started to have sex with my boyfriend, we do not want to have kids , we are very careful, but we only depend on counting days, since I have a regular period we have sex only in the week after the period and in the week before, is this safe enough ?

Also, I had my last period on the 4th of March, and its due on 1st of April, we had sex on the 12 and 27 of march , and I usually have heavy pre period symptoms like headachs and cramps, but until now I feel nothing, and I am having a very strange brownish discharge , does this mean that I am pregnant? Please advice.

Thanks

I know it doesn't sound like an answer, but the answer to both questions is "i dont know, and nobody here will know"...

My wife became pregnant while religiously tracking her cycle and while we were using birth control. My opinion is that there is no such thing as a regular cycle... sure a person might have a "reliable" history, but that one time when your ovulation is thrown off... my five year old is proof that sex, no matter how careful you are, can bring life into the world.

Planned parenthood states that 1 in 10 to 1 in 4 women who exclusively use FAMs (fertility awareness methods) become pregnant.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/fertility-awareness-4217.htm

Really... those aren't great odds for avoiding pregnancy. As you age, and your partner ages, there can be lowered fertility... but you simply cannot rely on that for peace of mind, at least in my opinion. My partner was older than you when she conceived again, trying not to, with BC.

As for your symptoms... please read the sticky's at the top of the pregnancy forum... there you'll see that most "symptoms" that people cite are presumptive and simply are not at all reliable. Just like a person can have a runny nose because they are sick, were out in the cold, ate something spicy, have an allergy... people self diagnose using "pregnancy symptoms" all the time, and it isn't reliable.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/pregnancy-new-motherhood/am-pregnant-read-before-asking-26487.html

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/pregnancy-new-motherhood/do-you-wonder-if-you-pregnant-78870.html

You don't want to know what people think. You want to know the truth, right? No medical provider will EVER say "yes you are pregnant" or "no you are not" based on these symptoms.

When in doubt, you test for the presence or absence of pregnant. Hormones. Period. If its negative, that doesn't mean you are or are not... it means the test didn't detect threshold levels of hormone. Which can happen if you aren't pregnant or can happen if you are but hormone levels have not concentrated to the threshold sensitivity of the HPT.

So... I don't think anybody can feel confident assuming the risk you are asking when you say "is this safe enough"?. I wouldn't tell an 18 year old that its safe enough, if she clearly didn't want children.

And even the best birth control often has a failure rate of 1-2% with perfect use... that's 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 women using birth control properly over the course of a year. Yes... I understand you are also timing your cycle... I just don't believe that timing alone is good enough for a person who clearly does not want children.

Wish I could give definite answers. I cant. Wish I could tell you reliably with described symptoms whether you are pregnant... id make a mint if I could.

Pregnancy is a possibility. You'll have to wait and see what happens in the next several days. Just because you usually have some regular symptoms before your period, does not mean you will always have them every time. Our bodies change over the years and periods will sometimes change as well.

Counting days is not the best way to avoid pregnancy as many women do not follow the formula you usually see, such as ovulating on day 14 with a 28 day cycle. Some women will naturally ovulate sooner and some later than the norm, and you can also ovulate at an off time from your norm on occasion. It is important to keep in mind as well that sperm may live for a few days, some hardy souls for several days, so having sex in the week or few days before you may ovulate is often the most likely time to become pregnant.

If you are not comfortable using one of the various medical birth control methods, watch for signs that your body may be preparing to ovulate... increased cervical mucus that is more fluid and often more abundent, you could try temp and charting for a few months and see what pattern you tend to follow, some women will notice some slight cramping around the time they ovulate and perhaps an increase in their sex drive. A great book to learn more about your body is Taking Charge of Your Fertility... by Toni Weschler. You can also find numerous sites online that discuss natural ways of avoiding pregnancy, and signs of ovulation. Here are just a couple:

Signs of Ovulation - Ways to Detect Signs of Ovulation (http://infertility.about.com/od/tryingtoconceive101/a/ovulationsigns.htm)

Natural Family Planning - Institute for Reproductive Health (http://www.irh.org/nfp.htm)