Breastfeeding and negative pregnancy test

Good morning,

My name is Sarah and I am breastfeeding my 5-month-old child. Since I started to feel nausea and sickness I thought I was pregnant. However, this morning I’ve taken a pregnancy urine test just after getting up and the result was negative.

I haven’t had my period yet since my baby was born.

How could I find out whether I’m pregnant or not without visiting my doctor?

Does breastfeeding have an influence and maybe it’s the reason why I’m getting a false negative?

Hello Sarah,

Breastfeeding is a natural contraceptive method since prolactin blocks hormones responsible for follicle ripening and thus ovulation. This effect starts diminishing as breast milk supply decreases. However, it is advisable that contraceptives are used even when breastfeeding, although only non-hormonal birth control methods, i.e. estrogen-free methods.

The reason why you need contraceptives anyway is because ovulation returns gradually and if you engage into sexual intercourse when an egg is ripe even though you haven’t ovulated for months there’s still a chance for getting pregnant since prolactin levels may diminish.

My advice is that you can take a blood pregnancy test since it is more accurate than a urine one. Regarding contraceptive methods, I suggest you use progestin-only hormonal methods.

Best wishes.

I’m worried. My baby is 6 months old. I stopped bleeding the week after childbirth (caesarian). After 10 days, I spotted during 2 days and I realized it occurred at the same time I made great efforts and got exhausted. I haven’t been on my period ever since. I’m breastfeeding but I’ve always had the feeling I have a low breast milk supply so I resorted to formula feeding. When my baby was 3 months old I started to follow the same pattern every 3 hours and from 5 months onwards I added cereals. My baby rejected breast milk once but he accepted it again later. Currently, he only tolerates it in the morning and at night but my breast milk supply is too low. The reason why I’m worried now is because my breasts are absolutely huge (how can they grow that much in a single month?) and I have noticed some symptoms, which could be due just to hormone changes but the thing is I experienced these signs when pregnant. What should I do? Could I use a pregnancy test? I’ve no money or health insurance and as far as I know I have to visit my doctor in this case. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.