Stopping the pill and trying to conceive: how quickly can a woman get pregnant?
The contraceptive pill, often portrayed as a great achievement in family planning, is and remains an interference with the body’s hormone balance. Some women suffer from cycle disorders after stopping hormonal contraceptive methods, and these can vary in severity. This phenomenon is hardly surprising: after all, the body is suddenly deprived of hormones that were previously supplied to it on a regular basis.
An observational study by the research project on natural family planning (NFP) showed that around 50 per cent of women noticed no irregularities in their cycle after stopping the pill.1
Is it advisable to get pregnant straight after stopping the pill?
There are many women who, after taking the pill for a long time, feel the need to give their body some time first. How long it takes after the withdrawal bleed for the hormones to stop having an effect in the body and for the side effects of the pill to subside has not been conclusively established.
Some gynaecologists even advise waiting, as taking oestrogens and progestogens can also affect the consistency of the cervical and uterine mucus. In the ‘post-pill cycle’ (1st menstrual cycle after stopping the pill), the quality of the uterine lining is sometimes not ideal, which can lead to implantation problems and can therefore increase the likelihood of miscarriage. This means the fertilised egg finds it particularly difficult to attach to the uterine lining. The second half of the cycle before the period is also often shortened, and corpus luteum insufficiency can occur.
Other hormonal contraceptives, such as the hormonal IUD, the three-month injection and the hormonal implant (progestogen rod), can also influence your chances of fertility after stopping or removing the contraceptive method and can lead to an irregular period or cycles without ovulation.1
How long does it normally take for a pregnancy to occur after the pill?
An average figure for how quickly a woman can get pregnant after stopping the pill is ultimately of little use, as every woman and every cycle is different and must be assessed individually.
Getting pregnant after stopping the pill
As a general rule: after stopping hormonal contraception with the pill, the body usually returns to its natural fertility and ovulation resumes. In 2002, a study examined the relationship between how long the pill had been taken and pregnancy in the 12 months after stopping the pill. Even among the women who had previously taken the pill for 5 years or longer, 89.5 per cent became pregnant within a year of stopping the pill.2
In another study, however, a difference was found in relation to the type of pill. In women who had previously used a pill with a high oestrogen content (≥ 50 mg oestrogen), the time until pregnancy occurred was longer than in women who took pills with a low oestrogen dose. The latter, in turn, needed more time to become pregnant than users of other methods.3
You might like these products:
And what about other contraceptive methods? For the hormonal IUD, much the same applies as for the contraceptive pill: as soon as it is removed, the effect of the hormonal agents wears off and fertilisation is possible (unless a uterine infection occurred while it was in place). The same applies to the hormonal implant (progestogen implant). Only with the three-month injection can it take longer (up to 12 months) for the hormones to be completely eliminated and for the body, or rather its natural hormone balance, to function normally again.4
How does an app or a cycle computer help me after the pill?
If you take the advice of some doctors to heart and allow yourself a little time until your ‘normal rhythm’ has returned, you can start natural family planning with peace of mind. If you are asking yourself when you can get pregnant, knowing about the fertile days in the menstrual cycle will help you. A precise and natural way to identify this window is to use a cycle app in combination with a basal thermometer, or a cycle computer.
The Bluetooth basal thermometer cyclotest mySense incl. app and the cyclotest myWay cycle computer come into play here, providing you with information about your fertility status.
By regularly recording and analysing your body signals, you can chart your cycle and narrow down your day of ovulation. The basis is the basal body temperature; optionally, the cervical mucus or LH tests can also be evaluated.
You can use our tools as soon as you are no longer taking the contraceptive pill. The only important thing is to wait for your first natural bleed.
Of course, there are other things you can pay attention to if you want to get pregnant:
Keine Kommentare vorhanden