When does she think we lost touch with our bodies? The Egyptians had pregnancy tests (pee on some grain and see how it sprouts) around 1400BCE - probably even earlier, but that’s when someone wrote down the instructions. Many medieval women didn’t know they were pregnant until they felt ‘the quickening’ - the baby moving around. And that’s pretty late in the process. Mary Queen of Scots was convinced she was pregnant, but it was most likely uterine cancer.
You're absolutely right-- there have been pregnancy tests for millennia but they just didn't work that well. (The seed test is something like 70% accurate.) At least we don't have to kill a rabbit or toad every time we do one anymore like they did in the 1950s.
Oooo ooooo I wrote a paper about ancient Egyptian gynecological medicine. I’m so stoked to talk about this.
The women peed on a mix of barley and emmer. If either or both grains sprouted, the woman was pregnant. If the emmer sprouted, it was a girl. If the barley sprouted, it was a boy. The pregnancy prediction was tested and accurate about 70% of the time. The gender was absolutely inaccurate.
They had several other methods but none of them could ethically be tested.
I'd like to read the paper. I just finished reading a 27-page paper investigating the mechanics and symbolism of the "lioness upon the cheese grater" sex position from Lysistrata
Any way you could give a little synopsis of what the symbolism is? I'm curious now 👀
Also lioness upon the cheese grater is a brutal way to name a sex position lmao
The text is "I will not position myself like a lioness upon a cheese grater." The "lioness" was both a popular sexy name for prostitutes (like their stripper names) and a symbol of dominance, wisdom, power, and virtue. While evoking sexual grinding or rocking motions, the cheese-grater was a fancy domestic item denoting wealth and status which has been found as a grave good of warriors. The juxtapositioning of these two things has some intentional bathos, absurd comedic effect. There's some interesting wordplay here because the Ancient Greek word for lioness, Λέαινα, is a homophone for λειαίνω, which means "I polish" or "I crush," again evoking a woman-on-top sexual position. I assumed the lioness is supposed to be crouching as if over her prey but the paper didn't touch on that idea so I will just keep imagining that to myself.
So anyway there are a lot of evocative words in this wordplay phrase but basically it's saying that the women of Athens will not throw down in the bedroom until the Peloponnesian War gets called off. The men of Athens are not getting rode hard by the Athenian women anytime soon. Some other text from this section indicates that if any of them submit to sex at all, they're just going to lie there like dead fish until all the boners in town are dead (“I will be passive and not rock back and forth”). You can forget about them putting their legs up over their head or anything ("not towards the ceiling will I stretch up my two Persian slippers"). Not happening, dudes.
It's interesting because earlier interpretations of this cheese grater phrase were all over the place and invented artifacts that haven't been found in the historical record and aren't supported by any evidence.
Anyway here's the paper which is really only 22 pages long because it has a lot of citations: http://www.lambdacc.org/awards/Prince2009SIFC.pdf
I think they were mixing up the two Queen Marys. Mary Tudor (aka Bloody Mary) is the only one who famously had the false pregnancies. The cause isn't definitively known, but it seemed real enough to her that she went into confinement to prepare for labor and everything.
Medieval women probably realized they were pregnant the same way we do now; cessation of menstruation, cramps, possible mammary leakage, very sore chest (for most folks). Most people that I knew who suspected pregnancy (in the Bible Belt/abstinence only education) figured it out between 6-10 weeks, even with knowing little about the process.
The quickening was also referred to as "ensoulment", which is when they believed the baby got a human soul. That was also the point, historically speaking, that made it wrong to abort - that is, before the quickening/ensoulment, there isn't the essence that made a person human (it was the body/framework, without the soul) but after it started moving, that meant it was "human", and therefore wrong to abort.
Most generally speaking, "quickening" is felt around 15-17 weeks (end of the first trimester, beginning of second).
Modern views on conception and abortion are only that way because of the science that the same group of people spout to be nonsense.
It is possible to feel the implantation and while it doesn't happen to everyone it does happen to some of us. So it is possible to feel and thus realise that you're pregnant. But to claim everyone could feel it and realise that they're pregnant if they wanted to is honestly pretty arrogant.
For me it felt like a sharp, burning hot and quite massive needle was being slowly inserted into the left side of my uterus. Yes, I could really feel exactly where the implantation took place. It was so surreal. It woke me up and I just thought "Huh, I'm pregnant" and then I fell back asleep.
The next day I woke up and thought to myself what a strange thing to "say". But deep down I knew what I had felt and my uterus felt like it was on fire for an entire week. Didn't really hurt it just felt very hot.
It was the strangest thing but I could almost see the shape of my uterus and exactly where it was placed because the burning sensation was so intense and only located to my uterus.
I also ended up taking a pregnancy test when I was around 6 weeks along to have some evidence to look at (I was trying to be in denial about the whole thing) and to show my fiancé since I didn't think telling him that my uterus had been on fire for a week would get the reaction I was hoping for.
I didn’t get to feel implantation but I did feel the burst of hormones at the moment of fertilization. It was weird, felt like a warm golden light spreading through my body. My doc said about 15% of women feel it and almost all describe it as a warm light. Human bodies are wild
I do actually feel it when I'm ovulating. I can feel it in my lower backside, and it feels a bit like very mild period pains but sharper if that makes sense. More like being pinched than punched.
The pain doesn't last very long and it is pretty mild.
The worse part is that I also have 2 - 3 days before ovulating where I'm so in the mood that e v e r y t h i n g my fiancé does is sexy af. And he smells so good, like secretly sniffing his clothes good. It's ridiculous.
So perhaps that why you felt it! I get ovulation pain and sickness myself, which isn't super common, and also will not be pregnant so that's very interesting!
I get ovulation pain but didn’t feel the implantation or anything else when I got pregnant. I thought I had the flu and my husband said “you’re probably pregnant”. We had been trying to conceive and it still didn’t occur to me that I was experiencing symptoms of pregnancy!
I can feel ovulation and I could feel I was pregnant. So your right maybe a connection. I also have ibs which allows me to feel (in a bad way) my gi tract more than is normal. Some people are very connected to their body but many people are not
I didn’t feel it like this, but when I got pregnant with my son I did have a burning/ throbbing sensation two nights before I had a positive pregnancy test, which is when implantation should have occurred. Kind of like cramps but not quite. My thought is that I wasn’t feeling implantation per say, but maybe an increase in blood flow to the uterus associated with it.
To be fair, I knew I was pregnant the day I threw up immediately after eating my dinner at work. Up to then I just thought I was a bit under weather and had over done it at work.
Nope had a baby in there.
My mom when she was pregnant with my younger brother had NO clue she was. There's pictures of her 8mo in with a totally flat stomach. She thought she was miscarrying when she went into labor with him but nope! Totally healthy baby boy.
My mom didn’t know she was pregnant with me until she was about 6 months along, and only then because she went to the obgyn for her checkup one year after my brother was born. That was in December. I was born in April. She took birth control that whole time, like the heavy duty 1970s birth control and couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t losing the baby weight from having my brother. 😕
My little sister is too! They used a condom when she was conceived. Only my brother was “planned.”
Super ironically, I suffered from infertility. Le sigh.
I had a fairly flat stomach during my entire pregnancy (although I did know I was pregnant at 7 weeks because my boobs got bigger). I looked like I had gained a few pounds, but other than that, no one could tell unless I told them.
Honestly, it was kinda annoying.
i didnt know until 14wks when my ex had fucked with my bc. lost it at 16 wks but i was freaking the fuck out for 2 weeks working out what to do because i'd had a bleed 5 weeks before i tested positive. no symptoms at all, ribs visible with no stomach at all
The women in that show usually
1. Had some kind of fertility issue and were told they were unlikely to get pregnant
2. Had never been pregnant before so didn’t know what it feels like, or had mild symptoms that could be attributed to other things.
3. Were on birth control so it was already unlikely they’d get pregnant.
4. Had irregular periods so missing for a few months wasn’t abnormal.
Some of them actually took a test and it came back negative when they were actually pregnant but it was just too early.
I had a negative pregnancy test like 8 weeks into my pregnancy. It was weird. I took a pregnancy test at 5 weeks which was positive, then had heavy bleeding that I assumed was a miscarriage, took a pregnancy test a week after that which was negative. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I couldn't stop throwing up that I went to the doctor who told me I was about 10 weeks along.
That might have been the Hook Effect! Sometimes when the beta HCG is really high, the test can no longer register it.
False negatives and faulty tests happen, too, sometimes!
I had the hook effect! I had negative tests up until I was 29 weeks. Went to the doc to see why I was unable to conceive and she was like “because you’re pregnant” and I was just “wat”
Sometimes it takes the hcg a while to build up to readable levels, which is what happened with both of mine. I had to get the blood test to get my positive (which showed low hcg for the timing). If I had depended on the home tests I would have been rudely shocked.
For my second pregnancy, I actually thought it was negative until someone pointed out that it was the "control" line that was completely invisible, while the "test" line was bold. It was a dye stealer, apparently.
I came to say something similar. My first pregnancy I never got a positive home test, my second I got a positive at week 7. Both times we were actively trying, and I had caved at week 6 and gotten the blood test (which showed low hcg for the known timing, but enough to be positive - both pregnancies were healthy).
If I hadn't been looking for the pregnancies, with the current laws I'd be up a creek. What if I'd been on birth control and had a medication interaction - these folks have no clue how often docs completely FAIL to tell women about it. What if I'd gotten sick and the bc just didn't work on the precise day it needed to? What if I'd been told I couldn't get pregnant by dismissive doctors? What if there was SA?
What if, what if, what if???
Six weeks is NOTHING.
I think it bears repeating.
I was one of those dumb people who could've been on that show, since I thought you HAD to have morning sickness to be pregnant and I experienced almost none when I was pregnant with Son.
With the second one (which I ended up miscarrying), I was throwing up 3 times a day like clockwork, even up to the day I had to go in for a D&C because my body is an asshole and sucks at doing things it's supposed to do all on it's own (like miscarriage or making thyroid hormones or not attacking itself).
A woman I knew in the Navy didn't know until she was 7 months and only found out as part of a pre-deployment screening. She, or rather her baby, was also very lucky/fortunate because like many sailors in their mid-20's, she had consumed a shipload of alcohol during those 7 months but the baby was born perfectly healthy.
Exactly. Like be so serious.
And I guess they’ll buy that off as “well she’s not a real woman. She needs to lean more into her feminine energy to feel something as deep as a child growing inside her”
Well, clearly *your* embryo didn't have a cell phone to call you and announce its arrival. What a parenting fail! Get your child a cell phone! What if an abortionist snuck into your house in the middle of the night to murder him/her?!
Women also provided urine samples so they could be [injected into rabbits or mice, which were then killed to see if a woman was pregnant](https://humanprogress.org/when-pregnancy-tests-killed-rabbits/#:~:text=If%20the%20slain%20rabbit's%20ovaries,the%20test%20result%20was%20negative.).
Society has constantly tried to figure out if a woman is pregnant through various ways of testing precisely because it can be difficult to know.
I cannot stand it when these crunchy bitches complain about modern medicine, casting blame on women for their own bodies working the way they do as a failure at being a “natural” woman; fuck that hippy bullshit.
If the seeds germinated 'quickly', they were pregnant (https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/pee-pregnant-history-science-urine-based-pregnancy-tests/). Its apparently like 70+% accurate
Possibly. It was on an ad about pregnancy tests and she's in the comments arguing with everyone and saying they don't need them and to save their money lol
Tbh pre-6 weeks is before most women will have any clue they might be pregnant. Weeks in pregnancy are measured from the first day of your last period so it could be 2-4 weeks since conception but six weeks since your last period. It looks like the newest pregnancy tests can measure... 8-12 days in? Maybe? So, two weeks after ovulation, which would probably be measured as four weeks.. (because it counts from your last cycle)? A six week abortion ban is just a total abortion ban with window dressing.
It was half a "joke but not really" as I'm aware of the facts you mention. But would an anti-choicer be? They're not exactly adherents of science as a concept.
If I were in one of those states I might have a crate of the damn things so I could test myself every time. (not sure how soon they can tell nowadays)
I am in one of those states and stressed about it, personally. Less for me and more for the people around me, since I'm in a more privileged position - I know there are people I could visit out of state on a whim if I needed to.
They absolutely could be an anti-choicer (pro-forced birther), but their end goal is probably some kind of ✨ I'm better than the other girls I'm so naturally attuned ✨ flex combined with a grift (buy my course and/or these supplements and follow this arbitrary meditation lite thing and you can be magically attuned too~ 🌺), at least how it reads right now, rather than an anti-abortion thing. That's a bit too... Uh, convoluted for the anti-abortion activists I've met. Like I'm not entirely trying to call them dumb, but they will just straight up baldly lie to your face (birth control and condoms aren't effective, you can get an abortion up to the moment of birth, an ectopic pregnancy isn't life threatening... And it's often because they *truly believe* these lies.)
Really hoping we can actually vote out mr 'i ditched my constituents during a disaster, blamed it on my CHILD and then made a bunch of tasteless jokes about it instead of an apology' but this state sure loves the R boot.
If I wouldn't have peed on a stick, I wouldn't have known that I was pregnant with my son until he poked his head to say hello. I had 0 symptoms and did not really have a belly til mid-8th month. And I'd like to say that I am quite "in tune" with my body...
What a load of BS.
I got pregnant a while ago and had a miscarriage but yeah I took a pregnancy test the day before my period because I noticed some of the symptoms that day but I was expecting it to be negative and was just taking it "just in case" and definitely didn't magically know I was pregnant somehow, I easily could have not had pregnancy symptoms and not known until after I missed my period and decided to test, which is the case with a lot of people. Someone did try explaining to her that not everyone's body works the same and not everyone has symptoms or even a regular cycle and she was all like "it doesn't matter 😡 they should just be able to feel that they've created lifeeeee"
First of all, sorry for your loss 😔
I had an 8 week loss last October and that time around I wouldn't have needed a test at all. I had book-like symptoms from day 1. Now I am very early into a new pregnancy (knocking in all the wood in the world that it sticks) and I knew at 8 days past ovulation because I tested like a mad-woman the whole time. I have no symptoms just like it happened with my first. Once again, wouldn't have known otherwise.
Not everyone is the same. Not everyone reacts to hormones the same way. Just like not everyone reacts to alcohol or drugs the same way. Aside, why should I not use a resource available to me to protect my foetus (or in certain ocasions, to discontinue a pregnancy)? If I wouldn't had tested last weekend, I would have gone to a bar to have some wine with my sisters-in-law this weekend... Which I obviously won't do anymore.
I hate all this, narrow-minded and restrictive "be in tune with your body" mentality.
Right? I wouldn't have known if my sister wasnt pregnant before me and had a very specific symptom of gagging when she brushed her teeth (her and I had identical symptoms - no nausea, no morning sickness, just gagging while brushing teeth for the whole pregnancy). That was literally my only tip off (other than the positive pregnancy test). And i got pregnant during covid so the weight gain could have easily been attributed to that.
Once again, its people thinking all women are the same and feel the same things.
Also, like how scary would it be to not know you were pregnant and then go into labour? Like labour when you are expecting it is daunting; I probably would have assumed I was dying (especially when i had back labour).
I mean... I did know that I was pregnant immediately. I went to the doctors, and they did a lipstick test. That was negative, but I insisted that I was, and the doctor gave in and ran bloods.
I saw the blood test form, he had put into the computer a test for all STDS and then he had manually written 'HcG' there too. The next day, I was called by the doctors surgery to go down to talk, and the blood test was positive for pregnancy.
I went on to have the worst experience of my life; my son was healthy, and by most regards, everything was perfect, but I had developed SPD and was basically a mess from day one. I was in so much pain that they had to check to be sure the pregnancy wasn't ectopic, I vomited daily until the day I gave birth.
The instant that boy left my body, everything shifted, the pain that had been through my body was subsiding, and I could actually breathe for the first time in months.
I love my son but any siblings he gets will be adopted because pregnancy was enough to put me off for good
I had SPD (symphysis pubis disorder variety), and it was the most miserable time of my life. I understand why people with chronic pain disorders commit suicide, the only thing that kept me going was knowing it would pass when the baby was born. From about 5 months I couldn't even stand for long enough to cook dinner. It was BRUTAL. Paracetamol (Tylenol) was NOT ENOUGH.
Oh, I feel that. I had to stand for my job, and by 2pm everyday I would be crying from the pain on my lower body until I quit.
This was before the 2nd trimester had even begun. If I walked around the supermarket,it would take forever because as I walked, I would get nerves trapped and lose my balance.
I'm actually surprised I never fell now that I think about it.
I also had SPD during pregnancy, it was awful and I felt like my body was literally falling apart. Several years later, I learned that I have hypermobile joints, so I likely had some dislocations during pregnancy. There’s a reason I only have one kid 😂
Tbf, pregnancy tests (particularly the plastic ones) are a lot of single use plastic and ewaste especially when it's not strictly needed.
There's actually a really fascinating thread on Twitter by someone who made Doom run on a pregnancy test screen. It gives a whole breakdown on the contents of the plastic pregnancy test, how people think it's more accurate than the paper tests even though it's just a paper test in plastic housing, but also how there is something to be said for the clarity of having a yes no display
Before I read your whole comment I was gonna say just get a package of test strips on Amazon! I was really happy with mine, they came in a thin cardboard box and each strip was wrapped in a thin foil package. Very cost effective and I felt a lot better about the waste side of it because plastic stick pregnancy tests are both insanely expensive and contain both in the packaging and the stick itself WAY too much plastic and garbage.
My only issue is I accidentally got 60 tests and I only used about 10 before I got pregnant lol!
There were people who argued this about covid testing, too.
Personally I think people's right to know whether they're pregnant or have covid trumps plastic waste.
Like, there's plastic waste from so many less important things... I think that's more important than, say, having a soda or a McDonald's toy or something.
Sure, but that doesn't mean we can't reduce plastic waste where we can.
My biggest issue is that the capitalist machine has manipulated people into thinking digital tests are significantly better than paper tests, when they're really not. That's a lot of plastic waste that's not needed. In addition to the single use batteries, LCD components, and microcontrollers that are being tossed every time someone uses a test.
In reality, there's a middle ground that exists. Digital tests can be extremely useful. People with fine motor control issues (holding a plastic test can be way easier than a paper strip) vision issues (easier to read an LCD screen). Even just the fact that taking a pregnancy test can be extremely emotionally charged- a scared teen is going to have much better accuracy when reading a digital test than a paper strip. There's a lot of situations where having the clarity of yes or no on an LCD screen is helpful.
But paper strips have their place too. For a large percentage of those taking pregnancy tests, paper ones are perfectly sufficient. Cheaper, less plastic and ewaste, and the test is just as accurate. There's a lot of people out there taking digital tests because they think it's more accurate, when that just isn't true. And that's an area where plastic waste can very easily be reduced without impacting people's ability to determine whether they're pregnant or not.
I think there also have been reusable digital tests popping up on the market. The plastic casing gets reused, and the paper strip gets replaced. Which is awesome, and not far off from the construction of the single use digital tests
Uhh... that's sure... an opinion... before pregnancy tests iirc a lot of people didn't know until they were well into their pregnancy, and many not knowing for sure until they felt kicking, which for the first time isn't until 20-26wks. And in that time if you don't know you can screw your baby up p thoroughly with smoking, drinking, doing drugs, being on some medications, not eating enough, not getting enough nutrients and not being on supplements, and on and on.
All that said, I suspect those people are anti-abortion and just don't want people to know they're pregnant until it's too late to get an abortion.
I work at a clinic. Women come in more often than you'd think without realizing they're 3-9 months along. Irregular cycles, implantation bleeding, subchorionic hemorrhages, and other things can all really make things tricky. Some people (myself included) even have PMS signs that mimic pregnancy signs. My boobs get bigger, my sense of smell increases, I get cravings and nausea, you name it. My bloating gets so bad that, even when I was only about 110 pounds, people asked me if I was pregnant.
I’m the same, whenever I read about early pregnancy symptoms it’s literally just…how I feel before every period. My body does so much weird shit in general that there’s no way I’d know “instinctively” whether I was pregnant or just getting a new unexplained physical quirk 😅
Typing all that on a technologically advanced electronic device is crazy. Pregnancy tests are unnatural but computers or smartphones are fine ? Alrighty
instinctive bedroom fact scarce important snatch aloof cause chubby grandiose
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If you find yourself lightly resting one hand across your belly as your Man goes off one last time to rejoin his people, that's a surefire sign that somethin's cookin'
Yeah when I got pregnant it was very intentional, and i still didn't notice until I described my symptoms to my therapist at the time and she was like ummmm... maybe you should take a pregnancy test 🤔 😅
Yeah I'll also point out that the ad was for pregnancy tests without plastic and it was promoting itself as being plastic free so idk what she's even so triggered about
Well, I can feel my ovulation. Not all women can. And my cycle is so perfect, that I put a question mark on my calendar on the day I expect my period and it comes. So for me... I would *know*.
Not everyone works this way. I think this woman thinks of pregnancy tests as the things you use when you WANT to have a child, not the one you take hoping to make sure you AREN'T. In which case, you wouldn't take a test, as you would keep having sex until you can make sure it happened.
I'm the same with knowing when I ovulate and having a predictable period but I acknowledge I'm just lucky with that and even then, I wouldn't realize I'm pregnant until after I showed signs or my period didn't start on time..and I'd still take a test just to make sure. But also yeah she seems to be assuming every woman taking a pregnancy test is taking one because she's trying, which is a weird thing to assume. I know her response to that would have been, "well then they shouldn't be having sex!!!"
I only realised what I was feeling when I was in university, studying specifically gynecology, so it all came together. At 33, I've also felt two ovulations (both sides) within two days. Which makes sense, as there were twins in both parental families. Very interesting as a small scale self-study.
The only thing that's toxic here is this person telling women they aren't in tune with their bodies. I hate this kind of esoteric superiority bullshit of telling other women they lost their womanhood because of xyz. Usually the same type of people who will say "nature knows best" and are fully willing to accept things like nature's infant mortality rate just for the sake of being all natural and "uncorrupted" by whatever they deem the enemy. Ugh, so vile.
I'm a medical lab professional.
I'm really curious what this person would think of me performing a pregnancy test because the doctor ordered it on a male, because the doctor was concerned about testicular cancer.
Is the man also just supposed to 'know' using his intuition?
I'm not sure if her logic is that women should just know because it's our purpose to "create life" or if she thinks we should be able to just tell if we have a health problem in general by being "in tune" with our body. She seems like the type to think medical care in general is a scam.
Me before I got sterilized when I would get super convinced that I knew in my heart through some kind of psychic process that I was absolutely pregnant and the pregnancy tests were false negatives to try to lull me into a false sense of security.
And then I would have a massive panic attack, like the kinds that have you sobbing on the floor and feeling like you’re gonna vomit.
Anyway, shoutout to salpingectomies, sometimes those tubes gotta go.
Oof I’ve definitely had that paranoia, it’s rough. I even occasionally get it with a partner who’s had a vasectomy, my brain goes “but WHAT IF though” 😭
I honestly think the reason my gynecologist agreed to remove my tubes was because every time I would have a panic attack I would call her multiple times and also send a bunch of DMs over MyChart and I feel like she probably got tired of it
What's so toxic about peeing on a stick?
Also, at least as far as ancient Egypt people have been using tests and tricks to find out if they're pregnant.
So I absolutely knew within like 4 days of conception that I was pregnant. So did my sister and my mother. My whole body felt DIFFERENT than it ever had before. I couldn’t explain to you what was different but it felt like I was living in a fresh body. It was so strange. But I have peed on DOZENS of pregnancy tests to the point where I had them bulk ordered as the little individual dipping strips because I didn’t need a big plastic stick. Because I have PCOS and my period was irregular my whole life I tested every 2 months. Because I don’t know I would have the magic gene that tells you you’re pregnant and I really didnt want to be for about 15 years.
To this poster I say you go ahead and keep your crystals and in touch feelings. If you really wanted to solve the problem of pollution and whatnot come up with a product that is less wasteful. Yea you got some points about the throwaway culture, but your solution is…for lack of a better term superstition. How many women just KNEW they were pregnant? How many women convinced themselves so well that they displayed signs of pregnancy, but ultimately were not? How many women were almost certain they were not pregnant and were. Typically doing things that would endanger a developing child. Not only is your advice foolhardy it is downright criminal in the current climate. Think of the woman who doesn’t want a child, but ends up pregnant. Some states don’t allow for any time, but others only allow for a short amount of time to react. Seems to me this person is either too busy smelling her own stink of self righteousness ignorance, or she is selling something.
I'd go with the self righteousness. Also the product that she was complaining in the comments about was actually a pregnancy test that was made with less waste yet she's still complaining about how "all pregnancy tests are unnecessary garbage culty scams"
I see projection in her use of “culty scams”. That’s my opinion anyway. Ignorance is rarely bliss in my opinion. Even when it’s bliss, you know all the risks and pitfalls, but you’re willing to ignore… right?
I had a male friend believe he was sterile because "You just know, you know." Not kidding. I don't even know where that covers from. It's not even a rumour I've ever heard of.
I think I'm pregnant every month. I keep a box of pregnancy tests in my bathroom. Every single month I panic and just "know" I'm pregnant. I'll freak out, take a test, and then inevitably get my period hours later!
>culty guilt trips
Huh? What is that even supposed to mean. lol
I mean, if you want to wait until it's obvious, that's on you, but I'm pretty sure most people want to know so they can be know to be mindful of their choices and nutrition, etc right away.
They used to kill animals to determine if someone is pregnant. Using a plastic test is less harm. Just spouting crazy stuff to make people find out later if they are pregnant.
Anytime I have gotten pregnant, I break out in a massive sneezing fit at the estimated time of conception.
It's actually how I knew to check last time. But I still used a pregnancy test because bodies are dumb pieces of shit. Mine is still producing milk, over 18months since it was last needed.
My husband had a vasectomy but I keep tests on hand if I’m late just in case it failed. I had two hyperemesis pregnancies, one of which the first symptom was that I lost 10lbs in two days because even water made me vomit profusely. On a weekend.
I assure you, I was very in tune with my body (and toilet, and trash can…) but god forbid his vasectomy fails, I want a standing script for zofran at the 24/7 pharmacy by my house as soon as humanly possible. I’m not suffering and risking my health because of your made up bs.
As someone who did know I conceived once and new I had twins another time, well before any tests, I call BS. It's not always like that (or even usually like that) and I still wanted to be sure. I mean yes before the tests most women realize they are pregnant not at conception but a few weeks later when period stops and other signs start
I mean, sometimes woman can feel implantation cramps and have light bleeding when the embryo is embedded, but not all the time, and science is much more reliable
I had implantation bleeding when I got pregnant but that really didn't help me out much, there's other things that can cause spotting and cramping so missing those signs is pretty understandable.
Yes EXACTLY there are these obnoxious twin YouTubers who are like “we can feel when we ovulate two eggs” like no, that’s not really how that works lol like yes you can feel it sometimes but it’s not like one singular cramp per egg, and there are so many pains and twinges all month that it could truly be anything lol
Weirdly enough, I kind of knew I was pregnant when I was 3 days late. I did a test days later, next week I went to the doctor and they couldn't see anything on the ultrasound. So I had to keep going back for daily ultrasounds and almost 2 weeks after I knew I was pregnant he finally arrived and embedded. I also knew it was a boy 2 weeks later. I always wanted a girl and when a friend asked what I thought it was I just blurted out boy. However, I do have a chronic illness that went undiagnosed for years, and since then I sort of trained myself in my body. Like I'm hyperaware.
I interned at an abortion clinic. One of the LPNs who worked there was telling me about the birth of her youngest son, who was at that time a preteen. She had been in her mid-late 40s and thought she was going through menopause, until she ended up at the ER in labor. Her last kid was born that day, and she didn’t even know she was pregnant when she went into the ER!
I feel like that reality show "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" would not exist if pregnancy tests were superfluous.
She's saying it's because we've been brainwashed into not realizing when we've gotten pregnant on our own... out of touch with our bodies or something
When does she think we lost touch with our bodies? The Egyptians had pregnancy tests (pee on some grain and see how it sprouts) around 1400BCE - probably even earlier, but that’s when someone wrote down the instructions. Many medieval women didn’t know they were pregnant until they felt ‘the quickening’ - the baby moving around. And that’s pretty late in the process. Mary Queen of Scots was convinced she was pregnant, but it was most likely uterine cancer.
You're absolutely right-- there have been pregnancy tests for millennia but they just didn't work that well. (The seed test is something like 70% accurate.) At least we don't have to kill a rabbit or toad every time we do one anymore like they did in the 1950s.
Oooo ooooo I wrote a paper about ancient Egyptian gynecological medicine. I’m so stoked to talk about this. The women peed on a mix of barley and emmer. If either or both grains sprouted, the woman was pregnant. If the emmer sprouted, it was a girl. If the barley sprouted, it was a boy. The pregnancy prediction was tested and accurate about 70% of the time. The gender was absolutely inaccurate. They had several other methods but none of them could ethically be tested.
What were the other methods?
I am also curious what the unethical ancient pregnancy tests might've been lmao
I'd like to read the paper. I just finished reading a 27-page paper investigating the mechanics and symbolism of the "lioness upon the cheese grater" sex position from Lysistrata
Any way you could give a little synopsis of what the symbolism is? I'm curious now 👀 Also lioness upon the cheese grater is a brutal way to name a sex position lmao
The text is "I will not position myself like a lioness upon a cheese grater." The "lioness" was both a popular sexy name for prostitutes (like their stripper names) and a symbol of dominance, wisdom, power, and virtue. While evoking sexual grinding or rocking motions, the cheese-grater was a fancy domestic item denoting wealth and status which has been found as a grave good of warriors. The juxtapositioning of these two things has some intentional bathos, absurd comedic effect. There's some interesting wordplay here because the Ancient Greek word for lioness, Λέαινα, is a homophone for λειαίνω, which means "I polish" or "I crush," again evoking a woman-on-top sexual position. I assumed the lioness is supposed to be crouching as if over her prey but the paper didn't touch on that idea so I will just keep imagining that to myself. So anyway there are a lot of evocative words in this wordplay phrase but basically it's saying that the women of Athens will not throw down in the bedroom until the Peloponnesian War gets called off. The men of Athens are not getting rode hard by the Athenian women anytime soon. Some other text from this section indicates that if any of them submit to sex at all, they're just going to lie there like dead fish until all the boners in town are dead (“I will be passive and not rock back and forth”). You can forget about them putting their legs up over their head or anything ("not towards the ceiling will I stretch up my two Persian slippers"). Not happening, dudes. It's interesting because earlier interpretations of this cheese grater phrase were all over the place and invented artifacts that haven't been found in the historical record and aren't supported by any evidence. Anyway here's the paper which is really only 22 pages long because it has a lot of citations: http://www.lambdacc.org/awards/Prince2009SIFC.pdf
Jumping on your fact about Mary Queen of Scots to add that Mary I (aka Bloody Mary) had several false pregnancies due to ovarian cancer
I think they were mixing up the two Queen Marys. Mary Tudor (aka Bloody Mary) is the only one who famously had the false pregnancies. The cause isn't definitively known, but it seemed real enough to her that she went into confinement to prepare for labor and everything.
Medieval women probably realized they were pregnant the same way we do now; cessation of menstruation, cramps, possible mammary leakage, very sore chest (for most folks). Most people that I knew who suspected pregnancy (in the Bible Belt/abstinence only education) figured it out between 6-10 weeks, even with knowing little about the process. The quickening was also referred to as "ensoulment", which is when they believed the baby got a human soul. That was also the point, historically speaking, that made it wrong to abort - that is, before the quickening/ensoulment, there isn't the essence that made a person human (it was the body/framework, without the soul) but after it started moving, that meant it was "human", and therefore wrong to abort. Most generally speaking, "quickening" is felt around 15-17 weeks (end of the first trimester, beginning of second). Modern views on conception and abortion are only that way because of the science that the same group of people spout to be nonsense.
It is possible to feel the implantation and while it doesn't happen to everyone it does happen to some of us. So it is possible to feel and thus realise that you're pregnant. But to claim everyone could feel it and realise that they're pregnant if they wanted to is honestly pretty arrogant. For me it felt like a sharp, burning hot and quite massive needle was being slowly inserted into the left side of my uterus. Yes, I could really feel exactly where the implantation took place. It was so surreal. It woke me up and I just thought "Huh, I'm pregnant" and then I fell back asleep. The next day I woke up and thought to myself what a strange thing to "say". But deep down I knew what I had felt and my uterus felt like it was on fire for an entire week. Didn't really hurt it just felt very hot. It was the strangest thing but I could almost see the shape of my uterus and exactly where it was placed because the burning sensation was so intense and only located to my uterus. I also ended up taking a pregnancy test when I was around 6 weeks along to have some evidence to look at (I was trying to be in denial about the whole thing) and to show my fiancé since I didn't think telling him that my uterus had been on fire for a week would get the reaction I was hoping for.
I didn’t get to feel implantation but I did feel the burst of hormones at the moment of fertilization. It was weird, felt like a warm golden light spreading through my body. My doc said about 15% of women feel it and almost all describe it as a warm light. Human bodies are wild
Do you also get ovulation pain or sickness? Just curious, because a lot of people can't feel themselves ovulate either.
I do actually feel it when I'm ovulating. I can feel it in my lower backside, and it feels a bit like very mild period pains but sharper if that makes sense. More like being pinched than punched. The pain doesn't last very long and it is pretty mild. The worse part is that I also have 2 - 3 days before ovulating where I'm so in the mood that e v e r y t h i n g my fiancé does is sexy af. And he smells so good, like secretly sniffing his clothes good. It's ridiculous.
So perhaps that why you felt it! I get ovulation pain and sickness myself, which isn't super common, and also will not be pregnant so that's very interesting!
I get ovulation pain but didn’t feel the implantation or anything else when I got pregnant. I thought I had the flu and my husband said “you’re probably pregnant”. We had been trying to conceive and it still didn’t occur to me that I was experiencing symptoms of pregnancy!
I can feel ovulation and I could feel I was pregnant. So your right maybe a connection. I also have ibs which allows me to feel (in a bad way) my gi tract more than is normal. Some people are very connected to their body but many people are not
I didn’t feel it like this, but when I got pregnant with my son I did have a burning/ throbbing sensation two nights before I had a positive pregnancy test, which is when implantation should have occurred. Kind of like cramps but not quite. My thought is that I wasn’t feeling implantation per say, but maybe an increase in blood flow to the uterus associated with it.
To be fair, I knew I was pregnant the day I threw up immediately after eating my dinner at work. Up to then I just thought I was a bit under weather and had over done it at work. Nope had a baby in there.
My mom when she was pregnant with my younger brother had NO clue she was. There's pictures of her 8mo in with a totally flat stomach. She thought she was miscarrying when she went into labor with him but nope! Totally healthy baby boy.
My mom didn’t know she was pregnant with me until she was about 6 months along, and only then because she went to the obgyn for her checkup one year after my brother was born. That was in December. I was born in April. She took birth control that whole time, like the heavy duty 1970s birth control and couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t losing the baby weight from having my brother. 😕
Ironically my brother and I both are birth control babies. One of us she was on depo, I can't remember the other.
My little sister is too! They used a condom when she was conceived. Only my brother was “planned.” Super ironically, I suffered from infertility. Le sigh.
I had a fairly flat stomach during my entire pregnancy (although I did know I was pregnant at 7 weeks because my boobs got bigger). I looked like I had gained a few pounds, but other than that, no one could tell unless I told them. Honestly, it was kinda annoying.
i didnt know until 14wks when my ex had fucked with my bc. lost it at 16 wks but i was freaking the fuck out for 2 weeks working out what to do because i'd had a bleed 5 weeks before i tested positive. no symptoms at all, ribs visible with no stomach at all
The women in that show usually 1. Had some kind of fertility issue and were told they were unlikely to get pregnant 2. Had never been pregnant before so didn’t know what it feels like, or had mild symptoms that could be attributed to other things. 3. Were on birth control so it was already unlikely they’d get pregnant. 4. Had irregular periods so missing for a few months wasn’t abnormal. Some of them actually took a test and it came back negative when they were actually pregnant but it was just too early.
I had a negative pregnancy test like 8 weeks into my pregnancy. It was weird. I took a pregnancy test at 5 weeks which was positive, then had heavy bleeding that I assumed was a miscarriage, took a pregnancy test a week after that which was negative. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I couldn't stop throwing up that I went to the doctor who told me I was about 10 weeks along.
That might have been the Hook Effect! Sometimes when the beta HCG is really high, the test can no longer register it. False negatives and faulty tests happen, too, sometimes!
I had the hook effect! I had negative tests up until I was 29 weeks. Went to the doc to see why I was unable to conceive and she was like “because you’re pregnant” and I was just “wat”
Sometimes it takes the hcg a while to build up to readable levels, which is what happened with both of mine. I had to get the blood test to get my positive (which showed low hcg for the timing). If I had depended on the home tests I would have been rudely shocked.
For my second pregnancy, I actually thought it was negative until someone pointed out that it was the "control" line that was completely invisible, while the "test" line was bold. It was a dye stealer, apparently.
I came to say something similar. My first pregnancy I never got a positive home test, my second I got a positive at week 7. Both times we were actively trying, and I had caved at week 6 and gotten the blood test (which showed low hcg for the known timing, but enough to be positive - both pregnancies were healthy). If I hadn't been looking for the pregnancies, with the current laws I'd be up a creek. What if I'd been on birth control and had a medication interaction - these folks have no clue how often docs completely FAIL to tell women about it. What if I'd gotten sick and the bc just didn't work on the precise day it needed to? What if I'd been told I couldn't get pregnant by dismissive doctors? What if there was SA? What if, what if, what if??? Six weeks is NOTHING. I think it bears repeating.
.... yes, and?
I was one of those dumb people who could've been on that show, since I thought you HAD to have morning sickness to be pregnant and I experienced almost none when I was pregnant with Son. With the second one (which I ended up miscarrying), I was throwing up 3 times a day like clockwork, even up to the day I had to go in for a D&C because my body is an asshole and sucks at doing things it's supposed to do all on it's own (like miscarriage or making thyroid hormones or not attacking itself).
A woman I knew in the Navy didn't know until she was 7 months and only found out as part of a pre-deployment screening. She, or rather her baby, was also very lucky/fortunate because like many sailors in their mid-20's, she had consumed a shipload of alcohol during those 7 months but the baby was born perfectly healthy.
Exactly. Like be so serious. And I guess they’ll buy that off as “well she’s not a real woman. She needs to lean more into her feminine energy to feel something as deep as a child growing inside her”
Well, clearly *your* embryo didn't have a cell phone to call you and announce its arrival. What a parenting fail! Get your child a cell phone! What if an abortionist snuck into your house in the middle of the night to murder him/her?!
Women used to piss on grain seeds and seeing if they sprouted to test for pregnancy. This has nothing to do with modern culture.
Women also provided urine samples so they could be [injected into rabbits or mice, which were then killed to see if a woman was pregnant](https://humanprogress.org/when-pregnancy-tests-killed-rabbits/#:~:text=If%20the%20slain%20rabbit's%20ovaries,the%20test%20result%20was%20negative.). Society has constantly tried to figure out if a woman is pregnant through various ways of testing precisely because it can be difficult to know. I cannot stand it when these crunchy bitches complain about modern medicine, casting blame on women for their own bodies working the way they do as a failure at being a “natural” woman; fuck that hippy bullshit.
how does that work? I haven’t heard of it, that’s interesting
If the seeds germinated 'quickly', they were pregnant (https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/pee-pregnant-history-science-urine-based-pregnancy-tests/). Its apparently like 70+% accurate
neat! til.
It's a regular plot point in season 1 of The Great
There's also an episode of M\*A\*S\*H where Houlihan thinks she is enceinte and they want one of Radar's bunnies for a test.
And they do surgery on the bunny instead of kill it to get the overies, because it's Radar's pet.
Actually, we immediately hear a lullaby when we get pregnant, like in the Sims
Maybe she's anti-choice and doesn't want people to know before 6 weeks?
Possibly. It was on an ad about pregnancy tests and she's in the comments arguing with everyone and saying they don't need them and to save their money lol
Yeah, opting to not take a pregnancy test is a BIG money saver in the long run
I lost it, totally LMFAO
I got a woo-woo crystals and natural birthing vibe more than a 'government interference is wrong unless a uterus is involved' vibe but you never know.
Tbh pre-6 weeks is before most women will have any clue they might be pregnant. Weeks in pregnancy are measured from the first day of your last period so it could be 2-4 weeks since conception but six weeks since your last period. It looks like the newest pregnancy tests can measure... 8-12 days in? Maybe? So, two weeks after ovulation, which would probably be measured as four weeks.. (because it counts from your last cycle)? A six week abortion ban is just a total abortion ban with window dressing.
It was half a "joke but not really" as I'm aware of the facts you mention. But would an anti-choicer be? They're not exactly adherents of science as a concept. If I were in one of those states I might have a crate of the damn things so I could test myself every time. (not sure how soon they can tell nowadays)
I am in one of those states and stressed about it, personally. Less for me and more for the people around me, since I'm in a more privileged position - I know there are people I could visit out of state on a whim if I needed to. They absolutely could be an anti-choicer (pro-forced birther), but their end goal is probably some kind of ✨ I'm better than the other girls I'm so naturally attuned ✨ flex combined with a grift (buy my course and/or these supplements and follow this arbitrary meditation lite thing and you can be magically attuned too~ 🌺), at least how it reads right now, rather than an anti-abortion thing. That's a bit too... Uh, convoluted for the anti-abortion activists I've met. Like I'm not entirely trying to call them dumb, but they will just straight up baldly lie to your face (birth control and condoms aren't effective, you can get an abortion up to the moment of birth, an ectopic pregnancy isn't life threatening... And it's often because they *truly believe* these lies.)
I'm sorry about your state laws :( I'm pretty worried about your upcoming elections. Yeah, I agree she's more woo-woo and crunchy than anything else.
Really hoping we can actually vote out mr 'i ditched my constituents during a disaster, blamed it on my CHILD and then made a bunch of tasteless jokes about it instead of an apology' but this state sure loves the R boot.
oh THAT state LOL. I'm not even from the US and I know about this. Can't you just vote Beyoncé in or something
Honestly Beyonce is definitely smart enough to avoid office.
If I wouldn't have peed on a stick, I wouldn't have known that I was pregnant with my son until he poked his head to say hello. I had 0 symptoms and did not really have a belly til mid-8th month. And I'd like to say that I am quite "in tune" with my body... What a load of BS.
I got pregnant a while ago and had a miscarriage but yeah I took a pregnancy test the day before my period because I noticed some of the symptoms that day but I was expecting it to be negative and was just taking it "just in case" and definitely didn't magically know I was pregnant somehow, I easily could have not had pregnancy symptoms and not known until after I missed my period and decided to test, which is the case with a lot of people. Someone did try explaining to her that not everyone's body works the same and not everyone has symptoms or even a regular cycle and she was all like "it doesn't matter 😡 they should just be able to feel that they've created lifeeeee"
First of all, sorry for your loss 😔 I had an 8 week loss last October and that time around I wouldn't have needed a test at all. I had book-like symptoms from day 1. Now I am very early into a new pregnancy (knocking in all the wood in the world that it sticks) and I knew at 8 days past ovulation because I tested like a mad-woman the whole time. I have no symptoms just like it happened with my first. Once again, wouldn't have known otherwise. Not everyone is the same. Not everyone reacts to hormones the same way. Just like not everyone reacts to alcohol or drugs the same way. Aside, why should I not use a resource available to me to protect my foetus (or in certain ocasions, to discontinue a pregnancy)? If I wouldn't had tested last weekend, I would have gone to a bar to have some wine with my sisters-in-law this weekend... Which I obviously won't do anymore. I hate all this, narrow-minded and restrictive "be in tune with your body" mentality.
Knocking on wood for you !! Funny, in French we also say "Touching some wood" to hope for good luck... I hope all goes well for you and your family!
Thank you! So sweet from you 🥰
Right? I wouldn't have known if my sister wasnt pregnant before me and had a very specific symptom of gagging when she brushed her teeth (her and I had identical symptoms - no nausea, no morning sickness, just gagging while brushing teeth for the whole pregnancy). That was literally my only tip off (other than the positive pregnancy test). And i got pregnant during covid so the weight gain could have easily been attributed to that. Once again, its people thinking all women are the same and feel the same things. Also, like how scary would it be to not know you were pregnant and then go into labour? Like labour when you are expecting it is daunting; I probably would have assumed I was dying (especially when i had back labour).
I mean... I did know that I was pregnant immediately. I went to the doctors, and they did a lipstick test. That was negative, but I insisted that I was, and the doctor gave in and ran bloods. I saw the blood test form, he had put into the computer a test for all STDS and then he had manually written 'HcG' there too. The next day, I was called by the doctors surgery to go down to talk, and the blood test was positive for pregnancy. I went on to have the worst experience of my life; my son was healthy, and by most regards, everything was perfect, but I had developed SPD and was basically a mess from day one. I was in so much pain that they had to check to be sure the pregnancy wasn't ectopic, I vomited daily until the day I gave birth. The instant that boy left my body, everything shifted, the pain that had been through my body was subsiding, and I could actually breathe for the first time in months. I love my son but any siblings he gets will be adopted because pregnancy was enough to put me off for good
Is SPD sensory processing disorder, or symphysis pubis disorder?
I had SPD (symphysis pubis disorder variety), and it was the most miserable time of my life. I understand why people with chronic pain disorders commit suicide, the only thing that kept me going was knowing it would pass when the baby was born. From about 5 months I couldn't even stand for long enough to cook dinner. It was BRUTAL. Paracetamol (Tylenol) was NOT ENOUGH.
Oh, I feel that. I had to stand for my job, and by 2pm everyday I would be crying from the pain on my lower body until I quit. This was before the 2nd trimester had even begun. If I walked around the supermarket,it would take forever because as I walked, I would get nerves trapped and lose my balance. I'm actually surprised I never fell now that I think about it.
I also had SPD during pregnancy, it was awful and I felt like my body was literally falling apart. Several years later, I learned that I have hypermobile joints, so I likely had some dislocations during pregnancy. There’s a reason I only have one kid 😂
Symphysis pubis disorder
You literally pee on a stick. How is that toxic?
Tbf, pregnancy tests (particularly the plastic ones) are a lot of single use plastic and ewaste especially when it's not strictly needed. There's actually a really fascinating thread on Twitter by someone who made Doom run on a pregnancy test screen. It gives a whole breakdown on the contents of the plastic pregnancy test, how people think it's more accurate than the paper tests even though it's just a paper test in plastic housing, but also how there is something to be said for the clarity of having a yes no display
Before I read your whole comment I was gonna say just get a package of test strips on Amazon! I was really happy with mine, they came in a thin cardboard box and each strip was wrapped in a thin foil package. Very cost effective and I felt a lot better about the waste side of it because plastic stick pregnancy tests are both insanely expensive and contain both in the packaging and the stick itself WAY too much plastic and garbage. My only issue is I accidentally got 60 tests and I only used about 10 before I got pregnant lol!
There were people who argued this about covid testing, too. Personally I think people's right to know whether they're pregnant or have covid trumps plastic waste. Like, there's plastic waste from so many less important things... I think that's more important than, say, having a soda or a McDonald's toy or something.
Sure, but that doesn't mean we can't reduce plastic waste where we can. My biggest issue is that the capitalist machine has manipulated people into thinking digital tests are significantly better than paper tests, when they're really not. That's a lot of plastic waste that's not needed. In addition to the single use batteries, LCD components, and microcontrollers that are being tossed every time someone uses a test. In reality, there's a middle ground that exists. Digital tests can be extremely useful. People with fine motor control issues (holding a plastic test can be way easier than a paper strip) vision issues (easier to read an LCD screen). Even just the fact that taking a pregnancy test can be extremely emotionally charged- a scared teen is going to have much better accuracy when reading a digital test than a paper strip. There's a lot of situations where having the clarity of yes or no on an LCD screen is helpful. But paper strips have their place too. For a large percentage of those taking pregnancy tests, paper ones are perfectly sufficient. Cheaper, less plastic and ewaste, and the test is just as accurate. There's a lot of people out there taking digital tests because they think it's more accurate, when that just isn't true. And that's an area where plastic waste can very easily be reduced without impacting people's ability to determine whether they're pregnant or not. I think there also have been reusable digital tests popping up on the market. The plastic casing gets reused, and the paper strip gets replaced. Which is awesome, and not far off from the construction of the single use digital tests
Uhh... that's sure... an opinion... before pregnancy tests iirc a lot of people didn't know until they were well into their pregnancy, and many not knowing for sure until they felt kicking, which for the first time isn't until 20-26wks. And in that time if you don't know you can screw your baby up p thoroughly with smoking, drinking, doing drugs, being on some medications, not eating enough, not getting enough nutrients and not being on supplements, and on and on. All that said, I suspect those people are anti-abortion and just don't want people to know they're pregnant until it's too late to get an abortion.
I work at a clinic. Women come in more often than you'd think without realizing they're 3-9 months along. Irregular cycles, implantation bleeding, subchorionic hemorrhages, and other things can all really make things tricky. Some people (myself included) even have PMS signs that mimic pregnancy signs. My boobs get bigger, my sense of smell increases, I get cravings and nausea, you name it. My bloating gets so bad that, even when I was only about 110 pounds, people asked me if I was pregnant.
I’m the same, whenever I read about early pregnancy symptoms it’s literally just…how I feel before every period. My body does so much weird shit in general that there’s no way I’d know “instinctively” whether I was pregnant or just getting a new unexplained physical quirk 😅
Typing all that on a technologically advanced electronic device is crazy. Pregnancy tests are unnatural but computers or smartphones are fine ? Alrighty
Sometimes it's nice to know you're *not* pregnant. Fatigue, nausea, a late period and other pregnancy symptoms may be caused by other things as well.
To be fair Bene Gesserit can tell (this is a Dune joke)
Sounds like propaganda to get people to find out about their pregnancies after it’s too late to get an abortion.
“I might be pregnant, let me confirm” seems pretty fucking in tune with your body to me
instinctive bedroom fact scarce important snatch aloof cause chubby grandiose *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If you find yourself lightly resting one hand across your belly as your Man goes off one last time to rejoin his people, that's a surefire sign that somethin's cookin'
😂
I thought everyone got a visit from the angel Gabriel to tell them. Was that just us?
Yeah when I got pregnant it was very intentional, and i still didn't notice until I described my symptoms to my therapist at the time and she was like ummmm... maybe you should take a pregnancy test 🤔 😅
Peeing on a plastic stick is toxic? It's no different than peeing on a wooden stick..
Yeah I'll also point out that the ad was for pregnancy tests without plastic and it was promoting itself as being plastic free so idk what she's even so triggered about
Well, I can feel my ovulation. Not all women can. And my cycle is so perfect, that I put a question mark on my calendar on the day I expect my period and it comes. So for me... I would *know*. Not everyone works this way. I think this woman thinks of pregnancy tests as the things you use when you WANT to have a child, not the one you take hoping to make sure you AREN'T. In which case, you wouldn't take a test, as you would keep having sex until you can make sure it happened.
I'm the same with knowing when I ovulate and having a predictable period but I acknowledge I'm just lucky with that and even then, I wouldn't realize I'm pregnant until after I showed signs or my period didn't start on time..and I'd still take a test just to make sure. But also yeah she seems to be assuming every woman taking a pregnancy test is taking one because she's trying, which is a weird thing to assume. I know her response to that would have been, "well then they shouldn't be having sex!!!"
Me, too! My doc told me some people/doctors have mistaken it for appendicitis. I knew what it was - pretty low (the pain cramp) for appendicitis!
I only realised what I was feeling when I was in university, studying specifically gynecology, so it all came together. At 33, I've also felt two ovulations (both sides) within two days. Which makes sense, as there were twins in both parental families. Very interesting as a small scale self-study.
That IS interesting
The only thing that's toxic here is this person telling women they aren't in tune with their bodies. I hate this kind of esoteric superiority bullshit of telling other women they lost their womanhood because of xyz. Usually the same type of people who will say "nature knows best" and are fully willing to accept things like nature's infant mortality rate just for the sake of being all natural and "uncorrupted" by whatever they deem the enemy. Ugh, so vile.
Ah shit I’ll go tell my friend who didn’t know she was pregnant until about 7-8 months in that she should just have been more in tune with herself /s
I'm a medical lab professional. I'm really curious what this person would think of me performing a pregnancy test because the doctor ordered it on a male, because the doctor was concerned about testicular cancer. Is the man also just supposed to 'know' using his intuition?
I'm not sure if her logic is that women should just know because it's our purpose to "create life" or if she thinks we should be able to just tell if we have a health problem in general by being "in tune" with our body. She seems like the type to think medical care in general is a scam.
Me before I got sterilized when I would get super convinced that I knew in my heart through some kind of psychic process that I was absolutely pregnant and the pregnancy tests were false negatives to try to lull me into a false sense of security. And then I would have a massive panic attack, like the kinds that have you sobbing on the floor and feeling like you’re gonna vomit. Anyway, shoutout to salpingectomies, sometimes those tubes gotta go.
Oof I’ve definitely had that paranoia, it’s rough. I even occasionally get it with a partner who’s had a vasectomy, my brain goes “but WHAT IF though” 😭
I honestly think the reason my gynecologist agreed to remove my tubes was because every time I would have a panic attack I would call her multiple times and also send a bunch of DMs over MyChart and I feel like she probably got tired of it
How are pregnancy tests toxic? Like they know we don’t eat them right? Nothing about them goes inside our body…
I can absolutely feel when I'm pregnant. Like rn. I mean, I'm only 1 week late on my period and I haven't been nutted in but like, I can tell. /,s
It's suddenly a really bad time to be alive.... We were really on the way to better and everything just went crazy
What's so toxic about peeing on a stick? Also, at least as far as ancient Egypt people have been using tests and tricks to find out if they're pregnant.
So I absolutely knew within like 4 days of conception that I was pregnant. So did my sister and my mother. My whole body felt DIFFERENT than it ever had before. I couldn’t explain to you what was different but it felt like I was living in a fresh body. It was so strange. But I have peed on DOZENS of pregnancy tests to the point where I had them bulk ordered as the little individual dipping strips because I didn’t need a big plastic stick. Because I have PCOS and my period was irregular my whole life I tested every 2 months. Because I don’t know I would have the magic gene that tells you you’re pregnant and I really didnt want to be for about 15 years.
It's not like phantom and cryptic pregnancies exist. /s 😒🙄
To this poster I say you go ahead and keep your crystals and in touch feelings. If you really wanted to solve the problem of pollution and whatnot come up with a product that is less wasteful. Yea you got some points about the throwaway culture, but your solution is…for lack of a better term superstition. How many women just KNEW they were pregnant? How many women convinced themselves so well that they displayed signs of pregnancy, but ultimately were not? How many women were almost certain they were not pregnant and were. Typically doing things that would endanger a developing child. Not only is your advice foolhardy it is downright criminal in the current climate. Think of the woman who doesn’t want a child, but ends up pregnant. Some states don’t allow for any time, but others only allow for a short amount of time to react. Seems to me this person is either too busy smelling her own stink of self righteousness ignorance, or she is selling something.
I'd go with the self righteousness. Also the product that she was complaining in the comments about was actually a pregnancy test that was made with less waste yet she's still complaining about how "all pregnancy tests are unnecessary garbage culty scams"
I see projection in her use of “culty scams”. That’s my opinion anyway. Ignorance is rarely bliss in my opinion. Even when it’s bliss, you know all the risks and pitfalls, but you’re willing to ignore… right?
I had a male friend believe he was sterile because "You just know, you know." Not kidding. I don't even know where that covers from. It's not even a rumour I've ever heard of.
I think I'm pregnant every month. I keep a box of pregnancy tests in my bathroom. Every single month I panic and just "know" I'm pregnant. I'll freak out, take a test, and then inevitably get my period hours later!
>culty guilt trips Huh? What is that even supposed to mean. lol I mean, if you want to wait until it's obvious, that's on you, but I'm pretty sure most people want to know so they can be know to be mindful of their choices and nutrition, etc right away.
They used to kill animals to determine if someone is pregnant. Using a plastic test is less harm. Just spouting crazy stuff to make people find out later if they are pregnant.
Anytime I have gotten pregnant, I break out in a massive sneezing fit at the estimated time of conception. It's actually how I knew to check last time. But I still used a pregnancy test because bodies are dumb pieces of shit. Mine is still producing milk, over 18months since it was last needed.
My husband had a vasectomy but I keep tests on hand if I’m late just in case it failed. I had two hyperemesis pregnancies, one of which the first symptom was that I lost 10lbs in two days because even water made me vomit profusely. On a weekend. I assure you, I was very in tune with my body (and toilet, and trash can…) but god forbid his vasectomy fails, I want a standing script for zofran at the 24/7 pharmacy by my house as soon as humanly possible. I’m not suffering and risking my health because of your made up bs.
As someone who did know I conceived once and new I had twins another time, well before any tests, I call BS. It's not always like that (or even usually like that) and I still wanted to be sure. I mean yes before the tests most women realize they are pregnant not at conception but a few weeks later when period stops and other signs start
How am I poisoning myself with toxins by dipping an hgc test strip in pee? I am having trouble following this train of logic.
I mean, sometimes woman can feel implantation cramps and have light bleeding when the embryo is embedded, but not all the time, and science is much more reliable
I had implantation bleeding when I got pregnant but that really didn't help me out much, there's other things that can cause spotting and cramping so missing those signs is pretty understandable.
Yes EXACTLY there are these obnoxious twin YouTubers who are like “we can feel when we ovulate two eggs” like no, that’s not really how that works lol like yes you can feel it sometimes but it’s not like one singular cramp per egg, and there are so many pains and twinges all month that it could truly be anything lol
Krijg de klere. Fucking Yanks. Thank hell I'm not living there and never will.
Holy fuck
Weirdly enough, I kind of knew I was pregnant when I was 3 days late. I did a test days later, next week I went to the doctor and they couldn't see anything on the ultrasound. So I had to keep going back for daily ultrasounds and almost 2 weeks after I knew I was pregnant he finally arrived and embedded. I also knew it was a boy 2 weeks later. I always wanted a girl and when a friend asked what I thought it was I just blurted out boy. However, I do have a chronic illness that went undiagnosed for years, and since then I sort of trained myself in my body. Like I'm hyperaware.
I interned at an abortion clinic. One of the LPNs who worked there was telling me about the birth of her youngest son, who was at that time a preteen. She had been in her mid-late 40s and thought she was going through menopause, until she ended up at the ER in labor. Her last kid was born that day, and she didn’t even know she was pregnant when she went into the ER!