How Long After Stopping Birth Control Can You Get Pregnant

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Many women use oral contraceptives or "the pill" as their method of contraception when they're trying to prevent pregnancy. If you lot're among this grouping, so the outset step when you decide you lot are fix to start trying to conceive will be getting off the pill. The next question is, how long should you await earlier trying to conceive subsequently coming off the pill?

Doctors frequently advise women to have a preconception wellness visit with their doctor or midwife if they are thinking nigh getting meaning. Your provider can help y'all devise a plan and ensure you lot are as healthy as possible in preparation for pregnancy.

Post-Pill Symptoms

It was once believed that once you stopped taking the pill, you lot should expect two to three menstrual cycles before becoming pregnant. Doctors also once believed that if you got pregnant right away, there was a higher take a chance of miscarriage. Information technology turns out that isn't true, as the hormones institute in birth command pills don't stay in your system after you lot stop taking them.

When you go off the pill, you may experience withdrawal bleeding, which is the period-like bleeding you feel when taking the non-hormonal pills in your pack. Withdrawal bleeding is not the aforementioned as true menstrual bleeding, but that doesn't mean you aren't fertile.

If you do get meaning before having your first true post-pill period, you may have a slightly harder time pinpointing exactly when you ovulated, which could make it challenging to estimate your due date.

Resuming Fertility

Most women begin to ovulate again within 2 weeks of stopping the pill, which is a sign that y'all are now able to go pregnant again. While you have a hazard to get significant during every ovulation cycle, you even so may non go meaning right away.

It can take a couple up to a year to get meaning, even with no problems related to their reproductive respective health. Even so, going several cycles without conceiving often concerns women nigh the land of their fertility, especially after they've stopped nascence control.

One thing to practise if you are wanting to conceive is to track your ovulation cycles. You can beginning simply with an app then move onto the other more involved methods if you still accept not conceived after a few months. Yous might consider learning almost and charting your fertility signs like cervical fluid and basal body temperature or using ovulation prediction kit (OPK) products.

Other Post-Pill Precautions

Research has shown that taking birth control pills can deplete your torso of nutrients such as folate, vitamins B2, B6, B12, C, and E, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. Many of these vitamins and minerals are highly associated with fertility and are vital for pregnancy, and then it'southward worth taking a close look at your nutrition both before and after going off the pill to run across if y'all may exist falling brusk in sure areas.

In add-on to preventing pregnancy, many women also use the pill to regulate their menstrual cycles or to alleviate heavy periods and menstrual pain. In such cases, it can take several months to have a normal period again subsequently stopping the pill. You may experience post-pill amenorrhea, or your body is still not producing the hormones needed for ovulation and menstruation. At that place might also be an underlying issue such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or endometriosis.

If you have not had a period inside three months of stopping the pill, take a pregnancy test to confirm that you lot're not pregnant and make an appointment to encounter your provider.

A Word From Verywell

While yous're waiting to go pregnant after the pill, information technology tin can exist helpful to talk to your doc near concerns regarding what'due south normal and what'southward not. Some women get pregnant on the pill, miss a pill and get significant, or come off the pill and get pregnant correct abroad. Merely there are besides many women whose bodies demand more time. This but ways information technology may take you a while to become pregnant, which is perfectly normal.

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Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to larn more than about how we fact-check and continue our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. Girum T, Wasie A. Render of fertility after discontinuation of contraception: a systematic review and meta-assay. Contracept Reprod Med. 2018;3:9. doi:10.1186/s40834-018-0064-y

2. Davis AR, Kroll R, Soltes B, Zhang Due north, Grubb GS, Constantine GD. Occurrence of catamenia or pregnancy after cessation of a continuous oral contraceptive. Fertil Steril. 2008;89(5):1059-63. doi:ten.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.05.012

3. Palmery Thousand, Saraceno A, Vaiarelli A, Carlomagno G. Oral contraceptives and changes in nutritional requirements. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2013;17(13):1804-13.

Additional Reading

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Source: https://www.verywellfamily.com/when-to-get-pregnant-after-the-pill-2758858

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