Pregnant teen

[PinkUnicorn]

Hello.
I am a teenage girl on 16 years, and i am pretty sure i am pregnant. I don't know who the father is, and i am kinda freaking out. How do i tell my parents, and what should i do?

Hugs from me.

[Igenio]

First of all. Congratulations! A child would be a wonderfull gift. Second you might want to practise in the mirror. It isn't something you can hide. So you really should tell them. Or tell it together with your school counsellor or another adult you trust.

[Always *]

If you think that you are pregnant, you have to get a pregnancy test. You can get them at a pharmacy for not too much money (it seems to average out at $7 to $15). If you can't afford it, you can go to your local health unit or Planned Parenthood and they'll probably give it to you for free. If it has been at least 2 weeks since the time of conception, there will be enough hormones in your urine to show a positive result if you're pregnant. I would recommend doing at least 2 tests at different times during the day (e.g. at morning and again at night). I've heard that the morning is a really good time to do a test because the hormones tend to be more concentrated or something like that, but realistically I am sure that any time of day will do.

If you are pretty sure you're pregnant, you should follow up with your doctor or other health care provider, regardless of the results, just to make really sure, especially if you only do 1 test.

Once you know if you're pregnant or not, then you can tell your parents. Do you feel safe telling them? That's really important because even if your scared to tell them, you need to be safe to keep living there. You can always tell the parent that you're closest to first, and ask that parent to help you talk to the other parent, that way you don't have to try having that conversation with two parents.

Don't forget that you have options too ok. If you find out that you're pregnant, you can get an abortion, choose to have your baby adopted, or you can keep it. The choice you make will be right no matter what you do; it's your choice and that's all that matters. If you decide to keep the baby, it's true that you'll have to find a way to deal with the financial side of it, which can be a huge struggle for young moms, but I've seen it be done (a few of my friends stuck close to home for family support, worked, finished high school even if they got their GED's, and went to college, and now their doing fine).

[Lizzie]

Have you missed your period and if so, by how many days?

I agree that taking a pregnancy test would be the first step if you have missed your period completely. Like mentioned above it needs to be at least two weeks after you had sex for the test to be accurate. Taking it too soon could result in a false negative.

If the test result is positive you need to make an appointment to see a doctor. Your general practitioner can do a blood test to confirm the pregnancy. Once you get an idea on how far along you are, you and the doctor can talk about your options. There is no need to worry just yet about those options, until you get to this point.

When you tell your parents is up to you. But if you are pregnant, you do need to tell them. Being pregnant, at any age, requires love and support from those around you. And getting your family on the same page as you, as soon as possible, is important.

[BayernManiac3]

I agree with Lizzie on telling the parent you're closest to first or ,any adult you are close to for that matter, and then figuring it out from there. Another little recommendation is to not go around having unprotected sex with a bunch of people. I'm not trying to seem harsh but it makes the situation a lot harder when you don't know who the father is. I wish you the best of luck with this situation.