[Angel Almira]

Hi.I'm 23 years old married girl. I have irregular period cycle which may be 35-40 days.is that normal? I got married last month and my last period started on June 16th. Now my periods are delaying. Having little stomach pain sometimes. We had protected sex only. Daily we are doing only fore play and masturbating. Will this delay my periods? Is it advisable to have protected sex when my periods are near? Which are the times I should not have sex?

[BethVader]

If you want to get pregnant, buy an ovulation predictor and follow its instructions. If you don't want to get pregnant, I suggest the Depo shot, it's easy, get one shot in the arm every three months and you are free to have unprotected sex anytime.
*An STD test for you & your partner is always a good idea before unprotected sex!

*Planned Parenthood is an excellent resource for gyno exams, birth control, and sexual health information.

[CravenMorhead]

Due to person experience of women on the depo shot, I wouldn't recommend it. It tended to kill the Woman's libido.

Are you on any sort of birth control? I think a trip to your oby/gyn is in order, could be indicative of a hormonal problem.

Can you have sex when your period is near? Yup. If you're using protection/condoms/pills/etc. you can have sex whenever you want. You can have it while you're on your period. It just gets messy.

[Cat1864]

Only your doctor can tell you if your cycle is normal for you or if you are experiencing medical problems.

Have you been careful during your mutual masturbation sessions to make certain that his penis or your hands do not come in contact with your vagina (especially after he ejaculates?) What type of protection have you used during intercourse?

Many factors can affect your period including being stressed or worried. If you are new to living together, then the stress of melding your individual lives and households into one can be a factor.

Unless you want to get pregnant, then always use protection and be certain to follow directions. The best contraceptives/birth control methods are not effective when used improperly. Even used correctly all forms do have a failure rate and some have side-effects. Talk to your doctor about what form would be most effective for you.

For some women, sex close to the time they expect their period to start can help lessen cramping. For others, it can make it worse. For some there are religious reasons for abstaining around and during your period. However, unless there is pain involved from a medical condition, I don't know of any reasons to refrain. Ovulation would be the time of the month where during and after you would want to be very careful if you aren't ready to have children. It sounds like you may not know when you are ovulating and would have to track your cycle for several months to have some idea so err on the side of caution and be careful at all times during your cycle.

Part of marriage and sex is learning what works best for the both of you. It is experimentation and communicating with each other. Have fun experimenting with timing (not only when during the 'month' but when during the day), positions, likes, etc.

[smoothy]

The only way that you can know when you ovulate outside of a medical office is Basal Temperature charts taken properly at the correct times and properly charted... anything else is like using Tarot cards to predict it.

With that said... unless you intend to get pregnant... always use birth control as it is possible to get pregnant while on your period and not just the rest of the month.

Other than that... you can have sex anything you want... its just messier during your period.