I am a week late and I have cramps. Does this mean I am pregnant?

Question

I never had a normal period but for the past 3 months I have been getting it within the same few days. I've been working out for the past 2 weeks straight. Am I pregnant or is my period delayed because of me working out?

Answer 1

just take the test...no point in guessing

Answer 2

It doesn't necessarily mean you are pregnant, but it could. Changing your exercise routine can change your menstrual cycle. But, cramping is also a normal part of early pregnancy - many women feel as if they are about to start their periods but then never do because they are pregnant. So, really, it could go either way. You should get a home test and take it to get your question answered.

Answer 3

Your period could easily be delayed because of working out...or any other stresses for that matter. The only way to know for sure is to take a home pregnancy test. Good luck!

Answer 4

Your period could be just about to start. I have thought I was pregnant many times and never was. My midwife told me if you believe you may be pregnant sometimes you may trick your body into believing it also. Delaying your period for even weeks.

Exercise, diet and stress can delay the onset of menstruation, Rarick says, or alter cycles once they've been established.

Gymnasts, ballerinas and others who exercise strenuously can sometimes delay the onset of their periods. Some experts believe the connection between exercise and amenorrhea [the absence of menstrual periods] is related to body fat content, because fat affects estrogen. Young women who are very thin from malnourishment may not start menstruating until they gain weight, with a certain portion of that weight being fat. So, girls who exercise a lot-who are all bone and muscle with no fat-may delay their periods. Similarly, young women with severe eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia often do not menstruate.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that a girl see her doctor if she hasn't started menstruating by age 16, or if by age 13 or 14 she hasn't begun to develop breasts or pubic and underarm hair.

Many young women have very irregular periods the first couple years of menstruating--even skipping some months, until, the system is well-tuned. In addition young women don't always ovulate every month when they first get their periods. There's no sure way for a young woman to know which month she is ovulating and which she is not. So, from the time her periods begin, a young woman should assume she can get pregnant each and every month, even if her periods are irregular.

Eventually, periods become regular, but even when they do, a missed or late period once a year--especially at a stressful time--is considered normal, according to Rarick.

Also, just as strenuous exercise and eating disorders can delay the onset of menstruation, they can also cause previously regular menstrual cycles to become irregular or stop completely.

Monthly Changes

Menstruation is just one part of the menstrual cycle, in which a woman's body prepares for pregnancy each month. A cycle is counted from the first day of one period to the first day of the next. An average cycle is 28 days, but anywhere from 23 to 35 days is normal.

Estrogen and progesterone levels are very low at the beginning of the cycle. During menstruation, levels of estrogen, made by the ovaries, start to rise and make the lining of the uterus grow and thicken. In the meantime, an egg (ovum) in one of the ovaries starts to mature. It is encased in a sac called the Graafian follicle, which continues to produce estrogen as the egg grows.

At about day 14 of a typical 28-day cycle, the sac bursts and the egg leaves the ovary, traveling through one of the fallopian tubes to the uterus. The release of the egg from the ovary is called ovulation. Some women know when they're ovulating, because at mid-cycle they have some pain--typically a dull ache on either side of the lower abdomen lasting a few hours. The medical word for this is mittelschmerz, from the German, meaning middle pain. Some women also have very light bleeding, or spotting, during ovulation.

After the egg is expelled, the sac--now called a corpus luteum--remains in the ovary, where it starts producing mainly progesterone. The rising levels of both estrogen and progesterone help build up the uterine lining to prepare for pregnancy.

The few days before, during and after ovulation are a woman's "fertile period"-the time when she can become pregnant. Because the length of menstrual cycles vary, many woman ovulate earlier or later than day 14. It's even possible for a woman to ovulate while she still has her period if that month's cycle is very short. (Stress and other things can sometimes cause a cycle to be shorter or longer.) If a woman has sex with a man during this time and conception occurs (his sperm fertilizes the egg), she becomes pregnant.

The fertilized egg attaches to the uterus, and the corpus luteum makes all the progesterone needed to keep it implanted and growing until a placenta (an organ connecting the fetus to the mother) develops. The placenta then makes hormones and provides nourishment from the mother to the baby.

If an egg is not fertilized that month and the woman doesn't get pregnant, the corpus luteum stops making hormones and gets reabsorbed in the ovary. Hormone levels drop again, the lining of the uterus breaks down, menstruation begins, and the cycle repeats.


Dont forget to always take vitamins!!
Make a doctors appointment.
good luck!

Answer 5

did you have unprotected sex? if you didn't have sex, you can't be pregnant. since you have cramps, your period will probably start soon. it might be later because you're working out. and stressing out.