It sounds like you had some abnormal bleeding, some periods that aren't normal for you, like you'll stop bleeding for 3 or 4 days and then start again after a day or 2 and have a day or 2 of heavy bleeding. Any abnormal bleeding should be checked out by a doctor because there's tons of different things that could cause this and some that warrant further investigation and treatment and others that are benign and you can just watch it and see what happens. It would be best to talk to the doctor and they can ask more specific questions, preform an exam and decide what to do from there.
As for affecting your ability to get pregnant, this is a really good question for them. It depends on the cause for the abnormal bleeding. Most women typically have cycles that last 25-35 days and if you have regular cycles chances are you're ovulating. This is when your body release an egg that can then be fertilized by sperm, this usually happens 12-16 days before your next period is about to start. So, lets say your cycles are 28 days, you're probably ovulating around day 14, or if your cycles are 30 days, you're probably ovulating around day 16. Everyone's a little bit different so if you want to find out if you're ovulating or not there are a couple things you can do, a couple cost nothing. There is one way, that's an over the counter test, it is a significant investment for some people but it can help you determine exactly when you're ovulating or most fertile. A woman is most fertile about 6 days out of each month, 5 days leading up to ovulation and on the day of ovulation. So, like you were saying you need to know if you are ovulating and when that time is and time intercourse with ovulation. If you don't want to think about it, it sounds like you've been trying for a few months, you probably want to think more about timing. You can start having intercourse every other day starting from the time your period ends. Do this for a week or 2 and this should time intercourse with ovulation as long as you're ovulating. Or, you could pay closer attention when you're ovulating by checking your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. This is called your basal body temperature. Before you even get up to go to the bathroom you take your temperature, but the problem with this is it helps you in hind sight. So you can track this over a period of months and decide when your body is ovulating but you don't see a rise in your temperature until about 24 hours after the fact. So you'll see a normal body temperature for a few days and then you'll see a slight increase and then a spike 24 hours after. So, again, this is helpful in hindsight. You can also pay attention to cervical mucus, because during your most fertile time cervical mucus becomes more slippery and a little more stringy and then after you ovulate it goes back to normal. You can also get over the counter tests like i mentioned before and these are helpful because it's kind of like a pregnancy test. If it's positive it means that you're fertile. So it usually gives you like a 12-48 hour window of time before you need to have intercourse because you're ovulating or you're in that 5 days leading up to ovulation. It's detecting a hormone called Luteinizing hormone which is associated with ovulation so if that is present and the kit detects it, then that's how you know you're fertile or not.
Again, I think it would be best to talk to your doctor and they can decide what the abnormal bleeding is do to, help you decide if you're ovulating or if the cause of the abnormal bleeding might be affecting ovulation and give you some more tips to help you get pregnant. I hope to hear pregnancy questions in the future, but if you have any others ask them at facebook.com/intermountainmoms and recommend us to your friends and family too.
