Guest Author - Holly Webster

There's an urban legend that you can't get pregnant during your period. Because a woman's cycle is not 100% predictable, there is never a perfectly safe period as far as pregnancy goes.

Normally, your body goes through a set cycle. It starts with an egg being released from your egg sac and heading down the fallopean tube. It ends up in the uterus, where it waits to get fertilized by a sperm and turn into a baby. If that happens, then it latches onto the uterus wall and develops for 9 months, normal pregnancy. But if no sperm comes along, the egg and the uterus lining flushes away through your vagina, and that is your period. Then a new egg is released from your egg sac and the cycle starts all over again.

So on one hand, having sperm enter your uterus while the lining is being flushed isn't the IDEAL time for pregnancy. There isn't a uterine lining waiting for the new baby, there isn't necessarily an egg waiting there to be impregnanted. However, a woman's cycle isn't always that nice and steady - especially for teenagers and young adults. Eggs can easily be released at odd times. There could easily be another egg coming down the tube that is just waiting for a sperm, and the new baby could be there, waiting, when the next lining is formed for it.

Also, sperm are very hearty. They can easily last 5 days or more. So the sperm can simply sit there in the uterus, waiting for the next egg to come down the chute. When it does, they hook up with it, create the baby, and now you're pregnant.

So no matter what point in your cycle you are, if you don't want to get pregnant, use protection!