Surprise Pregnancy: Could It Happen to You?

It happens much often than you mightiness think. Almost fractional of each pregnancies successful the U.S. are unplanned.

“If you’re a pistillate and haven’t gone done menopause yet, past it’s imaginable for you to get pregnant,” says Siobhan Dolan, MD, a prof of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s wellness astatine Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

You tin instrumentality steps to amended your chances of conceiving lone erstwhile you’d similar to.

Why It Happens

As the saying goes, the lone signifier of birth control that’s 100% effectual is abstinence. “Most of the time, commencement controldoes work, but ‘accidents’ tin happen,” Dolan says.

Condoms, birth power pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and different methods usually enactment 80% to much than 90% of the time. And imperishable commencement control, similar female sterilization oregon antheral vasectomy, has a nonaccomplishment complaint of little than 1%.

If you usage commencement power wrong, your chances of getting pregnant spell up. Sometimes it’s evident that it didn’t work, similar erstwhile a condom breaks. In that case, you whitethorn privation to instrumentality a 2nd step, similar the over-the-counter “morning after” pill. It tin forestall gestation up to 5 days aft unprotected sex. But if you don’t announcement an mistake similar a tiny spread successful a condom, oregon that you missed your regular pill, you could go pregnant.

The azygous biggest crushed for unplanned gestation isn’t ineffective commencement power -- it’s from a mates not utilizing anycontraception. “Some women whitethorn not usage commencement power regularly, and others not astatine all,” says Maureen Phipps, MD, main of obstetrics and gynecology astatine Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. “They whitethorn not similar it, mightiness not person entree to it, oregon whitethorn adjacent person a spouse who doesn't privation them to usage it.”

Many times, women oregon their partners aren’t definite if they privation a kid oregon not, Phipps says. “They’re not readying [to person a baby], but they’re not actively trying to debar pregnancy, either. And they extremity up getting pregnant.”

Some women don’t recognize that they could get pregnant. If you’ve struggled with infertility successful the past, don’t person regular periods, oregon are successful perimenopause (the clip play earlier menopause, which tin pb to airy oregon irregular periods), it’s inactive imaginable for you to conceive, though you don’t expect it.

If you inactive get your periods -- adjacent if they aren’t regular -- and you don’t privation to get pregnant, you “should support utilizing commencement control,” Dolan says.

Once you spell done menopause (meaning you're nary longer menstruating and it’s been a afloat twelvemonth since you’ve had a period), past it’s harmless to presume you tin person sex without contraception and not get pregnant. You volition inactive request to support yourself from sexually transmitted diseases, though.