This Woman Who Found Out She Was Pregnant Over 5 Months In Wants To Raise Awareness About Getting Pregnant While On Birth Control
This is Nydia Vazquez from Wichita, Kansas. Recently, she went viral for a TikTok where she described the time she visited the doctor and was surprised to find out she was almost six months pregnant.
In the video, which has been viewed 7.5 million times, Nydia says she thought she must have been very early in her pregnancy since she had only recently had her period, and had a regular period for months before that. After doing an ultrasound, the doctor informed her that she was more than five months along.
@nydiamv This is how it went down, since some of y’all need the dialogue. Stick around for part 2! #greenscreen #surprisepregnancy #pregnancy #surprisebaby
? original sound - Nydia Maritza
"All I could think about is, 'Holy crap, is this baby okay?! What the heck has been really going on for the past five to six months?,'" Nydia told BuzzFeed.
"I was stressed to the max around that time because it was my first year of teaching, I wasn’t eating the healthiest, I went to a few events where I had a couple of drinks, I was taking my birth control pill every night, and I was still getting my period."
Many women commented that they faced similar experiences. "It’s crazy how many people were able to relate to my story," Nydia said.
After going to the doctor and finding out she was more than five months along, Nydia uploaded a second TikTok where she played the part of a "doctor" and explained what she had been told by her own doctor: that it wasn't possible to have a period while pregnant, and that her monthly bleeding could have actually been a form of spotting from birth control.
Nydia said her bleeding stopped after she stopped taking her birth control.
Nydia's story resonated with many people who had experienced similar circumstances, so we reached out to Dr. Mary Minkin — an OBGYN and professor at the Yale University of Medicine — to get more information on bleeding or having a period during pregnancy.
"What I can reassure folks with is that this is very unusual," Dr. Minkin told us. "If you take your birth control pills regularly at the same time every day, your chance of having a failure (i.e. getting pregnant) should be in the 1-2% category."
"A woman should not be getting her period while she is pregnant," Dr. Minkin explained. A period is caused by a withdrawal of progesterone — a hormone pregnant people have a lot of.
"What I would assume is that [Nydia] had bleeding from some other cause (i.e. bleeding from her cervix), which she may have interpreted as a period," Dr. Minkin added. "[This] is why we tell pregnant women to report any bleeding they have to their providers."
Dr. Minkin said that while surprise pregnancies are rare, it is important to get a test if you're experiencing symptoms.
"If there is any suspicion in your mind, (like your belly is feeling rounder or fuller, you are queasy, or you're extra tired — all very common symptoms of pregnancy), you can always pick up a First Response home pregnancy test kit, which detects pregnancies very early (up to 6 days, before you even skip a period)."
There are a few reasons birth control pills can fail — the biggest being inconsistency. "We are human and we forget to take pills," Dr. Minkin said. "Some studies on pill users show that women may forget up to four pills in a month."
In addition to inconsistency, some treatments and health factors can affect how well birth control works. "Some women may take a medication or herbal product that can interfere with a pill's effectiveness, like St. John's wort," she continued. "And many pills carry a warning about decreased effectiveness for women weighing over 180-200 pounds. If that is a concern, women can use an IUD as its effectiveness is not affected by weight."
In addition to the surprise factor, Nydia believes the new law in Texas (which prevents women from getting abortions after six weeks) may have been a reason her video went so viral. "A lot of people don’t think that [the law] should be in place because of stories like these."
Like Nydia, many women often don't realize they are pregnant in the first six weeks.
Despite everything, Nydia said she's happy with how everything turned out. Her baby boy, Román, was born in the spring of 2020 and is completely healthy.
She also said this whole experience has changed the way she sees pregnancy. "It just educated me more on the possibility of getting pregnant while on birth control," Nydia explained. "You could be doing all the right things, taking precautions, and still get pregnant."
"One night I was just out for dinner with a friend enjoying my early twenties, starting my career as a teacher. And the next thing I knew, I was going to be a mom to a little boy," she said. "I believe things happen for a reason but I’m definitely paranoid of it happening again only because I don’t want more kids anytime soon."