Bleeding as the bodily equivalent of a positive pregnancy test, Plausible?
One of many things that differs the pregnancy of my Keplerians and that of humans is that in Keplerians, there is a symptom that is equivalent to a positive pregnancy test. To explain this, first, I need to explain what goes on during a normal menstrual cycle in Keplerians.
During a normal menstrual cycle in Keplerians, there is no bleeding directly from the vagina, all the bleeding is from the uterus. In their vagina, there is a layer of tissue similar to the endometrium of the uterus, but it responds to different hormones. These hormones that the vaginal endometrium responds to are pregnancy hormones.
Now, let's say a Keplerian gets pregnant. The zygote is going to start dividing. This triggers pregnancy hormone production. As the pregnancy hormone increases, the vaginal endometrium thickens, up to a point. Then once it reaches the threshold of pregnancy hormone, the vaginal endometrium sloughs off until it is back to its normal thickness. This causes a painless vaginal bleed to happen several days after ovulation and this bleed is equivalent to a positive pregnancy test. The bleed happens to correspond with when the embryo implants into the uterus.
This vaginal bleed in response to pregnancy hormones lasts for several days and so it is often called a "Vaginal Period". This not only confirms that the Keplerian is indeed pregnant, but it comes before the whole slew of pregnancy symptoms from nausea to abdominal rash. I know that there are real situations in humans where a change in hormone levels causes it to change from a positive feedback loop to a negative feedback loop involving the same hormones, with the menstrual cycle being one of those situations. So it isn't totally out of the question that the bodily equivalent of a positive pregnancy test in my Keplerians could be caused by a positive feedback loop changing into a negative feedback loop that leads to a leveling off of pregnancy hormone levels.
However, is the painless vaginal bleed for several days a plausible symptom to be the bodily equivalent of a positive pregnancy test?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/168936. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
0 comment threads