6mos post tubal occlusion...

Hi, I had a tubal occlusion (the clips) after the repeat csection of my 5th child. (5th child 4th pregnancy) meaning yes i had a set of twins. My period returned 2 mos post pardum (normal for me as i did not breastfeed) and my cycles were on time (32 day cycles) except MUCH heavier and lasted about 8 days. my last period (4/12/11) was weird (kinda light) more like heavy spotting, which weirded me out a lil bit. But the thing that concerns me is ive had NO period since... My husband and i are not using protection because we thought this would be a fool-proof plan (the tubal). Is there any chance at all I could be pregnant??? Could the tubal make my periods go away for good??? Because my doc never warned me of that and honestly im not exactly comfortable w/o a period... Makes me feel unlike a woman... If the tubal is the cause would it be unwarranted to remove the clips and would my period start right after??? Should i even waste my time (& money) on a pregnancy test??? Thanks in advance,

Lawskoolmommy (of 5)

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
I ALWAYS recommend doing a pregnancy test, although in your case I would hope that it would be negative!  I think it would be quite important to find out though, because of the possibility of a tubal pregnancy.
IF the test is negative, you may need some help to regulate your cycles. It is common to have irregular periods for awhile after delivery, but this is NOT caused by the clips, and removing them won't help.  
If you were my patient, and the pregnancy test was negative, my next step would be to prescribe progesterone for 5 days to see if it would bring on your period and "jump-start" your cycle.
Hope this helps!
Dr B