First of all, the doctor used the wrong word. Betty wasn’t “spotting,” she was bleeding. Spotting wouldn’t normally even break through one’s underwear:
How is spotting different from bleeding?
Spotting is very light bleeding, similar to what you may have at the very beginning or end of your period. It can vary in color from pink to red to brown (the color of dried blood).
Second, it’s fairly typical for bleeding during pregnancy to happen during the time of one’s normal period. That is, if Betty was bleeding during pregnancy, and didn’t know she was pregnant, the blood itself should not be alarming to her. Many women don’t know they’re pregnant precisely because their period comes on time.
In addition, most women have had unexpected periods, especially during times of great stress. You’re hanging around, next thing you know, BAM! A week early and of course it’s always when you’re wearing new clothes. Always. Betty went to a women’s college; she heard every woman’s menstrual war stories in the dorms, so even if this never happened to her before, she knows about it.
I can’t imagine a woman going to the doctor for that without other symptoms.
Sorry, this time, I think it’s a real mistake.
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Matt said in an interview that she concieved in that little tryst at Daddy's house. The time passes by quickly on the show.
"Some have also speculated on Betty’s pregnancy – a few folks have wondered if she might be pregnant by another man. Weiner shot down that theory. Betty became pregnant after sleeping with her husband, Don, at her father’s house, he said. She did cheat on Don with the stranger in the bar, but that was the first time she’d ever strayed, Weiner said."
I imagine she had other symptoms (tender breast, lite nausea, miscalculation of last menstrual day) and that she instinctly figured this might be the issue. But went to the MD to verify her worst fears. Even before he comes into the room to see her with the results she looks like a woman awaiting a death sentence.
The fact that she bled through to the couch is what made me think she wasn't pregnant. Spotting wouldn't have done that.
I had the same question as wisefish, tho, how do we know Betty wasn't having morning sickness?
I don't know how Betty is, but I know how I am, and if I know that if any chances were taken, I would be peeing on a stick at the slightest sign or symptom of a pregnancy. (And I assume the sex at Daddy's house was unprotected.)
I took at least 5 home pregnancy tests before I got a positive with my first child. And I have wasted money on HPT's for many a false alarm.
So, I don't find it odd at all that Betty went to the doctor to have her fears confirmed or relieved.
I remember the years before peeing on a stick and once those things came out, I wasted lots of money on them.
Thank the goddess for vasectomies, is all I can say.
And tubal ligation!
When Betty drops the kids off at the hotel with Don, the daughter comments about Mommy not wanting to eat much. So, it sounds like she did have other symptoms such as morning sickness.
oh I knew she was p.g., yep……Poor Don! That face on him when she told him, the disappointment — she did not want Don, she needed a Baby Daddy. Don is a lot of things, and a lot of things that are bad, but one thing he is, that's a good Daddy. God, I will not screw until the next season. Damn You Weiner!!!!
From Nikki Finke's DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD EXTRA: WHY THIS TOWN IS SO F***Ked UP – !
EXCLUSIVE: It takes a lot to shock me when it comes to Hollywood business. But this is lunacy. Lionsgate execs are calling Hollywood agencies looking for a showrunner to replace Matthew Weiner, the brilliant creator of Mad Men. The reason is that they think Weiner's agents at CAA are asking for too much money for him. I hear CAA wants a multi-year deal that pays Weiner $10 million a year. Plus he wants control over promotion and advertising. Now that's consistent with a big hit on pay cable and what Darren Star or David Chase made on HBO. But it's way, way rich for Lionsgate which is telling CAA it can't and won't pay that. "The 'ask' was insanity," one insider tells me. "It's preposterous. AMC is a basic cable network. The economics don't support this. It's why Lionsgate is throwing their arms up in the air. And, remember, they got a two-year pickup for the show with or without Matt Weiner." So Lionsgate picked up the phone and began asking the tenpercenteries for a "general list" of possible showrunners, and in some instances about the availability of specific names (like Aaron Sorkin). Are these guys NUTS?
Of course, no one decent would ever trample on Weiner's toes unless he blessed it. But this is also the surest way to fuck up the first basic cable program to ever win the Emmy for best drama. And let's not forget that the AMC show ended its 2nd season Sunday with record ratings. Sunday's finale averaged 1.75 million total viewers for its 10 PM airing, an 89% improvement over the first-season finale's 926,000. Compared with Season 1, Mad Men 2.0 saw a 63% increase in total viewers (an average of 1.5 million viewers vs. 925,000), a 109% jump in the adults 18-49 demo (705,000 vs. 338,000) and an 81% increase in adults 25-54 (780,000 vs. 430,000). Those still aren't great numbers even if every thinking person loves it. When I asked a Lionsgate source about this situation, I was told, "We're negotiating with Matthew Weiner. But we want him back…" Then why do this? My bet is it's a reaction to having Carl Icahn crawling up Jon Feltheimer's ass.
I'm behind the 'other offscreen symptoms' idea.
I think it's definitely weird to have Betty come up with this particular symptom. But I do think some artistic license is fair on this one because if the scene had been Betty throwing up there wouldn't have been any suspense in that. Plus how many times can people vomit on this show before it's a show about people who throw up a lot?
I thought she was going to be pregnant until I read SOMETHING on the internet that totally talked me out of it! It was a really good theory because Betty getting her period like that really would be a good symbol of her growing BUT the period theory had another dimension which I also liked which was that Grace Kelly doesn't bleed on the couch. I think it really works for showing how Betty's lost her grip on keeping her sex life tidy. Whether it's her period or pregnancy it's still a case of her womanly body doing its womanly thing in a visceral way and blowing her little doll image. So it's still got all that going for it, it's a great contrast and drama AND it added a lot of suspense for its ambiguity.
On top of that, I thought Betty used a diaphragm, I thought that was what she meant when she was at the hotel with Don and said she was 'prepared' so if she didn't use it at Dad's then maybe she remembered that and did some math.
So much has changed in medicine — women's health care in particular. Ultrasound was in its infancy (sorry) and they were still using live assays for human chorionic gonadotropin (an updated "rabbit test"). In most cases, the diagnosis of pregnancy was based on amenorrhea and physical examination. Without abortion or prenatal genetics testing, there was no reason to make the diagnosis quickly or accurately as pregnancies almost always declare themselves.
Certain gynecological tumors were sometimes mistaken for pregnancy prior to the modern era, but by mid-20th century America I don't think that was likely. We've been given no reason to suspect something unusual in Betty's case. She has two kids and spends time around other mommies. So she knows a lot more about pregnancy than Peggy did.
#11 Sorry, not "no reason" but, presumably, "less urgency."
I think I'm with Deborah on this one. The symptoms of early pregnancy are a lot like the period symptoms: tender breasts, maybe some moodiness, upset digestion. If Betty were having those symptoms, and she was bleeding enough to bleed through her clothes, then it seems like her reaction would be–especially if she'd done the math–"whew, at least I didn't get pregnant when we had sex at my dad's house." I'm not sure why she'd go to a doctor.
The time line works, although I think Betty is crossing her fingers for a miscarriage (she bled, she's pregnant, she's still riding, even though the Dr. said to stop. And she left the Dr.'s office before an exam, because she doesn't care enough at this point for prenatal care.) And Francine said, "Sometimes the best thing to do is just wait." I took that as a hint that lots of new pregnancies end in miscarriage.
I took Sally's comment to mean she was throwing up and not eating. My mother in law said she knew she was newly pregnant in 1963 with her 3rd when she felt nauseous seeing rotisserie chickens turning in the grocery store. She just knew. Betty has already had two babies. She knows the signs and symptoms for her, and she went to the doctor so she could find out as soon as possible.
I liked that they used something besides the obvious and cliche throw up scene, but then again, I think pregnancy is obvious and cliche so no net gain.
Back when I had sex with people who still had their tubes attached, if I bled then I would assume I was not pregnant. If I had spotted and then stopped, I might think there was something wrong and would either get the pee stick or go to the doctor.
The one time I did get pregnant, I knew immediately what those symptoms meant, because it was a possibility. (Condom breakage if you must know.) If Betty & Don had unprotected sex on Daddy's floor, she probably just "knew," given the other evidence.
#9 donna, thanks for the scoop. Wow, that's messed up.
I grew up in that town. From time to time, I forget about what goes on behind the stuff we see on the screen. I can not believe anyone wants to be involved in that crap. I'm sure on some level (like at a Sunday-night watchers' party in NYC) it's fun, but to me it's always felt like the law-and-sausage bargain: do you really want to see how this stuff gets made?
Re "Grace Kelly doesn't bleed on the couch": agreed. Unless something is wrong. And with Betty, last week, something was very wrong. I thought it was cerebral, mental. I was wrong.
As I've said elsewhere, I am wrong a lot.
My question is …
What was Betty thinking when she (presumably) had unprotected sex with Don when they were separated???
#9, I'd prefer if you posted a link or emailed me, so that the threads don't get tied up with unrelated news.
Other symptoms: If so, the doctor said nothing about them. He didn't say "the symptoms you've been having" he said "the spotting." That bothered me. I'd totally have accepted it otherwise, even the misnomer.
#17, you've never done something impulsive? You're a better woman than I am, or most of us, really. Betty's father had just decompensated in front of her. Her marriage was shaky, her nasty sister-in-law was stealing her mother's shit, she was terrified and sad and she wanted to be held and loved. Why ask why?
wisefish, maybe she was thinking something like what I said to my husband after that scene:
"Well, it's not like she can get morepregnant."
Put another way: what does she have to lose?
As for what Betty was thinking — I'm not positive that she was. Drinking: she was doing that for sure. But I saw a woman who seemed to be trying pretty hard not to think.
How do we know she didn’t have other symptoms?
And how much time passed from end of ep. 12 to beginning of ep. 13?
And by the way, sex between separated and divorced couples is VERY common.
#20 Totally.
I also think she was hoping the sex would shake something loose. She was doing all that horseback riding for the same reason.
Who wants to bet that now that she has told Don, she has a miscarriage anyway. Knowing this show, they'll do that, but the first scene of S3 is of Betty holding a baby, but it turns out she's babysitting for Francine or something.
Donny Brook, I really have my doubts that Betty was thinking that if she'd just shake up her down-there parts, she'd get rid of the baby. For Betty, riding is her escape…it's her way to get out of herself. In past episodes, we've seen how she goes riding when she's really upset (after the Jimmy episode, for example).
For another thing, she's not that stupid. Having sex doesn't harm a baby. She's not doing these things logically: "Now I will ride, then have sex, then go to Coney Island and get on the Cyclone! That'll do the trick!"
Oh silly spotting theory… I want to know who knows the level of underthings Betty had on under her thin pants…. I bet she could of 'spotted' lightly on the couch (who saw that spot on the couch?) wearing thin or no underwear.
These measurements of spotting (and dilation and effacement and any number of specific physical and then medical descriptions) are open to myriads of varieties and the fact alone that Betty and her daughter noticed it does not make it more then early pregnancy spotting (from the egg implanting possibly)
Thats my theory and I am sticking to it.
Oh, I am not saying that I can't imagine doing what Betty did, nor was I putting her down for doing it. I guess what I wrote (in #17) did sound judgmental, but I didn't mean it that way.
(And yes, I've done lots of impulsive things without thinking of the consequences. Not too much lately though.)
It just seems like she was usually so careful with her birth control, so I was just musing about what might have been going through her head at the moment when she decided to do it with Don.
Like, I was wondering if maybe she was trying to get pregnant? Or had she not brought her diaphragm with her, but wanted to do it anyway after the stress of the day so just threw caution to the wind? Or was she just not thinking at all and just wanted to feel something!
I thought about the diaphram right after that session on the bedroom floor too. I remembered FTWTY and her informing Don that she "came prepared" and flaunted her tiny purse. That's when I KNEW she used a diaphram. I don't think she planned the sex at all. It just happened.
As far as the miscarriage thing, I do think she was hoping she could lose the baby. Kind of the "if I ignore it, then it will go away" thing. The horseback riding after the Dr. told her to stop was her just doing "nothing at all" like Francine suggested. Her hoping it would resolve itself.
Then, after that bar tryst, she changed her demeanor about the baby. It's like she just—accepted it. She began to eat (the chicken leg), she told Don… Remember, she took Don back in the house but she really didn't HAVE to tell him about the baby. She could've just kept trying to get rid of it. He probably would've never known.
Okay, as I interpreted the doctor scene, Betty had symptoms, probably bleeding/spotting after riding, that caused her to go to the doctor. He even says that the spotting was not caused by her riding but the pregnancy. It was only after she went the first time (presumably just after Don went to California) that the possibility of pregnancy was raised. Presumably, it was too early for the doctor to be sure, but on the return trip he was certain. Her symptoms may not have caused her to think pregnancy at all, initially.
I do have a problem with the timeline of the sex on the floor as the conception, though, because it's only 4 – 5 weeks later at most when she goes to the doctor for confirmation (she says Don has been gone for 3 weeks), which I would think was way too early to know anything.
She could have bled in a similar manner when pregnant with Sally and/or Bobby. She could have been to the doctor already. She could have called it spotting herself and her doctor used her language. She could have…
taken Don back to clear her conscious because the Cuban Missile Crisis is not over yet. Besides, many couples on the rocks take one another back when Doomsday scenarios loom. Me, I have hope for this couple. (That could be Hanson's Mmmbop on Futurama talking, though:)
I don't know by all the names, but it seems the men have stayed far away from this thread!
I agree with Ellelque way back at #2:
I imagine she had other symptoms (tender breast, lite nausea, miscalculation of last menstrual day) and that she instinctly figured this might be the issue. But went to the MD to verify her worst fears. Even before he comes into the room to see her with the results she looks like a woman awaiting a death sentence.
She knew, the 'spotting' was just her wake-up call to get her ass to the doctor to confirm. She hoped hoped hoped he'd tell her anything else. But she knew.
@29 — OK, Roberta, I'll bite. As a man, on the subjects of menstruation and pregnancy symptoms, I will defer to people who are (A) of the other gender, (B) gynecologists, or (C) both.
All I know is this…my wife delivered three children, each wthout any epidural…and I didn't feel a thing!
Adding to the timeline theory:
Betty and Don have sex
The next day, Betty kicks Don out of the house again and Don leaves for California
Two weeks pass and Betty is "bleeding." She goes to see the Dr. who takes a preg. test.
One week later she goes back to the Dr. to verify the pregnancy test results.
Ew, Donny Brook: I was thinking about what you said in #21 about Betty holding someone's baby and how this show has had lots of scenes that are very ambiguous to keep us guessing and then unfortunately my brain put it all together and came up with the sentence "Betty's period was a total red herring" Hm.
But if Betty was hoping for her period to come but just had that one moment of bleeding through and then it stopped completely she would probably freak. I know I would. That's certainly never happened to me under normal circumstances. I'd be on the phone right away, "Francine, have you ever had a period that turned out to be a red herring?" Oh, the comedy.
BUT it's also true that if Betty was waiting and hoping for her period to come why's she sitting around in her riding stuff with no pad and acting like someone bit her when it comes? But then I go back to Betty losing control of things and I think that if it's a stretch it's a really small stretch and completely worth it.
I'm going to go throw up now.
Even if it's been 4 weeks that Don's been gone the theory still works because if she spots at 2 weeks post-sex and thinks it is her period then another week passes and there's no "flow" she would be tipped off that she needs to go to the Dr. Don was supposed to be in California on business for 1 week.
Sorry for the run-on sentence…
“Betty’s period was a total red herringâ€
bwahaha! It wasn't tho.
In '62 how far along would a pregnancy have to be before a doctor could confirm it with a pregnancy test? Anyone know?
@37 – wisefish, that was sort of my point. I will admit to being a man, and being gay, so am pretty far removed from the world of pregnancy and menstruation. But I also work in health care and have an older sister, so I know a lot of women who have given birth (at one point last year my company of 180 people had 5 employees pregnant at the same time). I thought doctors didn't even do a pregnancy test until at least 2 periods were missed, which would be 6 – 8 weeks post conception. Given the technology of 1962, would a pregnancy test even be possible 4 – 5 weeks (at most) after the "deed"?
@33 – elaine – love that comment: “Betty’s period was a total red herring†Hm.
Reminds of the movie "Clue" from the 80s, which had the great line "Communism was just a red herring."
Alright, the “spotting” could’ve been implantation bleeding. Implantation generally occurs 2 weeks after deed of conception has been done. That said, if Don’s been gone for 3 weeks then it is TOTALLY plausable that the timeline is correct.
I agree that Betty had to know she was pregnant. She has sex, then two weeks later her period is not there. But she’s “bleeding” and must have either been having morning sickness or breast tenderness, something that we didn’t see offscreen to tip her off.
I also do not believe that her not eating was due to the pregnancy (or morning sickness as someone else said somewhere). She quit visibly eating in the Inheritance before the sex even happened. She wouldn’t eat at her dad’s house and she wasn’t gonna eat until Glen asked her to. I can relate to that. When I have marital problems the first thing to go is my appetite.
Modern pregnancy testing is entirely a result of biotechnology. The pee-on-a-stick pregnancy test was one of the first commercial uses of biotech (and was developed when I was working for Bio/Technology Magazine).
Before that, you had to wait for at least one missed period. Betty, however, hasn’t missed a period as far as we know, and she’s at least 1 month pregnant.
A visual exam would tell the tale quite early, but Betty refused to undress.