Menstruation in pregnancy, you can have them?

Although one of the first symptoms of pregnancy is the lack of menstrual cycle, it can happen often enough to have some sort of menstruation while being pregnant.
About 30% of expectant mothers in fact relate episodes of vaginal bleeding and minor bleeding quite similar to menstruation, especially during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.


Menstruation is generated when the egg is not fertilized and the endometrium detaches from the uterine wall. For this reason we can not speak of real menstruation in pregnancy, since we are in the presence of a fertilized egg, but it is more correct to speak of decidual hemorrhage or bleeding.
These hemorrhages are different from menstruation not only because of the fertilization of the egg, in fact have other differences:

    They are usually darker than normal menstrual flow, or much clearer, almost pink.
    Losses are less abundant and more liquid
    Last less days, usually no more than 2 or 3


In any case, as well as for menstruation themselves, the symptoms vary greatly from case to case: you may find the typical symptoms of the menstrual cycle as sore breasts, bloated belly and abdominal pain, as well as have no symptoms except for losses blood. The common feature, however, of this fake menstrual flow that is not normally extends beyond the first trimester of pregnancy and it does not pose any risk to the health of mother and child. In some rarer cases are recorded false menstruation at every change of the month, possibly due to an error in the regulation of the biological clock of the expectant mother; also in this case it is a phenomenon mostly harmless and without consequences.

Another case of vaginal bleeding that may mislead us into thinking in a menstrual flow is caused by the plant (also called nesting or iguanas) embryo in the uterus.
In the first weeks of pregnancy the uterus is in fact more watered than normal, so it is easier that can cause leakage brown when the embryo implants in the uterine wall.
This phenomenon usually occurs between 6 and 10 days after ovulation, so it is easy that in many cases could be confused with the arrival of menstruation. Also in this case, however, the type of bleeding is different from that derived from the menstrual cycle: the losses from plant fact are only small, darker and last up to 2 or 3 days.


Despite these differences, in many cases, the arrival of these false menstruation can create anxiety and even some discouragement in those couples who are waiting impatiently for the arrival of the stork. To remove any doubt, you can do an early pregnancy test or take a visit to the gynecologist for a result 100% reliable.
In these cases no pathological fact, the ultrasound will show only small amounts of residual blood in the uterine wall and allow the gynecologist to check the correct implantation of excluding any risk factors such as an ectopic pregnancy.

If you are at the end of pregnancy, in the period just before giving birth, and you had a loss with traces of blood could be the expulsion of the mucous plug: generally consists of mucus but can also contain blood due to rupture of the capillaries of the cervix.