#i just think too deeply on the hypothetical reproductive cycles of fake humans

[spock-smokes-weed]

So I'm thinking about a/b/o world-building again, and my special interest of reproductive health and science. And with this synergy, I've been thinking a lot about how the bio functions of the omegaverse would actually work.

now I just want to preface this with I am not a doctor, I am not a med student, I'm just someone who likes learning about reproduction cus I find it interesting. I'm just a dude who makes comics I don't have any kind of medical authority. I know trying to have any kind of medical accuracy in the omegaverse is a fool's errand, but bear with me, okay?

So the biggest thing I think about in a/b/o is that there wouldn't be any periods, right? a/b/o is loosely (very loosely) based off of the mating and bio-function of wolves, and like most mammals, wolves don't get periods.

but periods are actually very useful from a survival standpoint, no matter how annoying we find them. The current theory as to why humans menstruate is that because pregnancy is so invasive on the host, it developed as a defense mechanism to protect the host from egg implantation. That's like the physiological reason (in theory) it happens, but I think we developed this way for another reason. Not getting your period is one of the first signs that you are pregnant. Again because pregnancy is so invasive, having a built-in way to tell when you're pregnant as early as possible is a very useful thing to have.

So, in a world where we don't have the same built-in warning system, how would people know whether they were pregnant or not? well, I think we should lean heavily on the whole scent thing. The biggest change to humans in a/b/o is that we have a stronger sense of smell, and we can gather greater information from scents. We can gather things like mood or arousal, and I think it would be the same for ovulation. Physiological changes already happen when we ovulate, so you would just have to make them more pronounced. The window of fertility is roughly the same length as a period, so maybe it's just that you put out a "hey i'm fertile" smell. which, considering the main demographic of the omegaverse are ppl with breeding kinks, I know you freaks would love that.

Now, you're probably asking "Lu aren't you just describing heats" well yes and no. It all depends on how you write it. Do you want heats to be their own special thing, or do you want it to completely replace periods and happen once a month? Let me explain

in most a/b/o world-building I've seen, omegas usually have a heat once every three months. So roughly that would mean 4 heats a year. Now let me ask, does an omega ovulate only during heat? If so that means they would only be fertile 4 times out of the year compared to a human's 12. And that's a totally valid route to take (but if you do take that route I would also consider how does a beta woman's cycles differ from that of an omega's. or don't. im not the boss of you)

However, if you're like me go "well it doesn't make much sense to only have 4 fertility windows. especially since omegas are prized for their fertility." then you now have to figure out if regular ovulation is distinctly different from heat. Because again if we're removing periods (which you don't have to do but I like to) then you have to consider a new built-in alarm for fertility and pregnancy. Because having no way to know when you're ovulating outside of heat sounds like a horror premise to me. Also just bad evolutionary design.

So, would heat be a monthly thing like periods? Or would heat and monthly ovulation be two different, yet connected things?

I think we could put it on a spectrum from how ovulation works for us now up to full-blown heat. When you're just getting your monthly ovulation, it would be more akin to how we get it, but the symptoms are just cranked up in how noticeable they are. You'd still be able to go through your daily life without it affecting you too much, like how it is with periods. And covering up the "i'm fertile" scent wouldn't be too much of a chore. This is how monthly ovulation would function for both omegas and female betas. So anyone with a uterus.

And heat would be more extreme than just your run-of-the-mill ovulation cycle. That's where you'd get the strong and potent scents, the fever, the vulnerability, the constant achey horniness.

This is where I dip into some made-up shit, so medical people don't come for me this is just my world-building idea on what would make a heat special from an evolutionary perspective. I think it would be that implantation has a much higher chance of happening vs. during a normal ovulation cycle. An egg can get fertilized, but if it doesn't implant in the uterine lining then it won't develop into a baby. So maybe it's the case that implantation is less likely during regular ovulation, and that's why omegas in particular are prized for their fertility. You can even do a thing where implantation is even less likely for male omegas outside of heat, so there is a cultural myth that male omegas can't get pregnant outside of heat. (like the myth that trans men can't get pregnant while on T. Everything loops back to the trans allegory for me hehehehe.)

Lower rates of implantation could make up for the fact that the body no longer has the period as a line of defense against pregnancy.

I really hope that made any kind of sense. I've been overthinking this more than I should because I was thinking about how the pill form of birth control works by stopping you from ovulating, but why would omegas need pill birth control if they only ovulate 4 times a year? Then I started thinking "well maybe they ovulate year-round like we do" and that led to me going "wait how would that work if they don't get periods." and now this post exists. Sex ED in the omegaverse must be a lot to keep up with lmao.

Now that I got the ovulating part of the post done, now to move on to "how would someone know they're pregnant if they don't have a period to miss." and that's an easy one. You can smell it. Your scent changes when you get pregnant and it'll probably be one of the first symptoms to develop along with morning sickness. I think at first it's just a change in scent, but a week or two after your scent changes, it fully matures into an "i'm pregnant" smell. And depending on when you get pregnant, missing your heat is another massive hint that you're pregnant. I think heat would still happen whether or not you're on birth control, so unless you're also taking something to stop your heats, missing a heat could be the "missing period" moment for some ppl.