It sound's like a bad dream? It just happend to You?
You two are having fun, You are doing it, You are using contraception, everything is great... until... YOUR GIRLIFRIEND'S PERIOD IS LATE ...
The first thing you two need to get is of course a PREGNANCY TEST (she needs to do the test, You can tell her to do it or if You are a nice guy You can be with her while she is doing it)
Sounds simple but... which kind of test? and when?
The most reliable pregnancy test is the level of bHCG in the blood - it's a laboratory test and she can't perform it at home.
Urine tests, especially those made during the day and not from the morning urine, may be quite unreliable. In other words, if your girlfriend's test is positive - urine pregnancy test is positive (yes, she is pregnant). Negative pregnancy test, unfortunately, does not exclude 100% of pregnancy (she can be pragnant but the test could not detected it).
It's assumed that a pregnancy test should be performed if "menstruation is late"- if girl's typical cycle is 30 days - she will be "late" after 31 days (counting first day of the last menstruation).
Everything would be simple and beautiful if every girl had regular cycles and if they were like a book examples - the 14th day of the cycle is ovulation, and after another 14 days she will get her period. Unfortunately, less than 1/3 of women have such model cycles.
Summarizing:
step 1 - if you are having sex, using contraception or not, and her period is late - she should do a pregnancy test.
step 2 - if the test comes out negative but she still doesn't get her period, she should do another pregnancy test after about a week. If the test is negative but she doesn't get her period for another 7 days, she should perform another test.
step 3 - if all tests were negative and she still didn't get her mestruation she should think about other possible reasons for the lack of menstruation.
Some of possible causes:
- hormonal disorders beeing a result of her lifestyle.
- dieting,
- increased or reduced physical activity,
- stress,
- traveling.
Some factors may disrupt girl's monthly cycle and may lead to a shift or even "fall out" of one cycle. It is usually nothing dangerous and every woman has the right to have two irregular cycles a year. It is only after three cycles that she should start to worry that the cause is more serious.
What are the more serious causes?
- ovarian cyst that interfere with their functions
- anorexia
- functional disorders of pituitary gland
Use contraception - better be safe then sorry.
If her period is late - buy tones of pregnancy tests.
Good luck!