Break through bleeding, why??

We are looking to start ttc in a couple of months and just in the last couple of months I have started to get break through bleeding/spotting 5-7 days before my period is due. This has never happened to me before and Im worried that something may be wrong. Last month I spotted for 5 days before AF started and this month I had blood stained cm for 3 days before my af kicked in properly. I'm not on the pill and I'm not pregnant which seems to be the main reason for break through bleeds. Im guessing it might be hormonal? Not sure why its happening all of a sudden as I have never had this kind of thing happen before and Im worried it will affect my ability too ttc.

Anyone have any experiences with this? Im wondering if something like acupuncture may help put my hormones back in check?

The first couple of things that come to mind are low progesterone or endometriosis. I'm sure there are other explanations though.

I'm a believer in acupuncture helping TTC in general, so I don't think you can go wrong there (as long as you see someone who specialises in fertility). I'm actually heading to an acupuncture appointment in an hour. Maybe you could ask the acupuncturist on the BB expert panel about it?

You could also ask your GP about it. They may be wiling to run some blood tests to check your hormone levels.

Pretty much what Juniper said.... other things it could be is hormonal imbalances such as thyroid probelms, excess estrogen, PCOS.... Do you have any pain during this time?

No pain. This month when the bleeding started I just felt like I was getting af which for me is just a bit of mild cramping. If the beginning of my bleeding was actually the start of my af that left me with a 23 day cycle this month. I've never had endo or PCOS, is that something that can come up later in life? Its very odd as I have never had anything like this before. My cycle has usually been really regular with no abnormal bleeding.

I have had the same thing im thinking mayby just hormonal cause mine are still settling after having ds

Probbably just the good ol' hormones at it again! I am getting the same thing...and mine is because my hormones are out of whack due to Merina.
I have had PCOS and Endo but not in the last few years so IMO it doesn't have anything to do with the breakthrough bleeding.

I get the feeling it may just be hormones playing up. Why couldn't they play up when we weren't starting to ttc :rolleyes:

I know you said you're not on the pill, but does that also mean you haven't been on it recently? I only ask because it can mess with your hormones for a few months after you stop taking them.

I haven't been on the pill since my eldest was about 6 months old, so 3 years. I felt terrible on the pill so went back on it for a month and stopped. Since then I have had another baby and when my period came back when he was 9 months old it was always a perfect 26/28 days. The weird bleeds only started in the last couple of months. I have noticed a huge difference in my skin around af time for about 4 months. I seem to be getting quite bad break outs which I also wasn't getting previously.

For me spotting was due to endo - I didn't know I had it, I had no other symptoms, no pain etc. I only had really really mild endo too, but it caused all of this irregular bleeding.

The easiest one to eliminate is the low progesterone cos you can do that by a blood test. It does sound hormonal from what you've said, so def go get that checked out first, just keep endo in the back of your mind as something to investigate if it keeps going for a long time and you can't find any hormonal causes? When I was doing research on it I saw a statistic that said something like 80% of cases of bleeding like that were endo-related. Endo is more common as you get older i think, so it can kick in later.

That's annoying timing for you, but goodluck with the ttc!

I'm getting the skin breakouts at AF time too the last few cycles. Not fun. FX it's something simple to fix (ie hormonal). :crossfingers:

Same thing happened to me about 6 months before we started TTC again, however I had been on the mini pill for a while after DS was born, after being a regular 28 day girl I suddenly became a 21, 23, 26, 24 etc cycler. Also had terrible skin. However as you know we conceived via IVF (male fertility issues) so I cant say whether it impacted things from my side. However I had a 28 day cycle the month of us using IVF and obviously got pregnant.

When I asked my Fert Specialist about it before we started cycling, she sent me off for a scan and I actually had a cyst (which resolved itself the following cycle) - could possibly be something as simple as that

Good Luck babe xx