Getting Pregnant After Birth Control



In the movies, a girl decides she wants to get pregnant and ceremoniously throws out her birth control pills. A few scenes later, we see her with a big, swollen belly and a smile as big as the sun.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work this way in the real world. Getting pregnant after using birth control can take time. In a lot of cases, more time than a woman and her mate might anticipate.

Birth control pills, shots and patches are designed to disrupt the normal release of an egg into the fallopian tube. To achieve this, contraceptives use hormones that also disrupt the natural flow of the body. The removal of these medications from the body entirely will take a bit of time. It might, in fact, take several cycles for the body's normal cycling to get started again.

The length of time necessary for the body to return to its normal functioning will vary depending on the type of birth control being used and the woman in question. Some women can throw out their pills and conceive on the very next cycle. Others require a bit more time.

For those who use injections, such as Depo Provera, the length of time for the cycles to return to normal can be long, even after injections have ceased. Some women see a return to normal within about three months. Other women have gone as long as 18 months following their last shot without a return to normal cycles.

When other forms of birth control are used, such as IUDs, the return to a normal cycle will also be required before pregnancy can be successful. For those who use condoms only for birth control, there is no waiting period suggested since the woman's natural cycle has not been disrupted.

It is normally recommended that a woman wait at least one full normal cycle before she tries to conceive. This simply helps the body regain its functioning before the strain of pregnancy is put on it.

Still, the wait isn't always necessary. Some women, just like in the movies, manage to get pregnant within weeks of ceasing to take birth control pills. It is very important for women to remember, however, that there is no set calendar on when fertility will return. In some cases, it simply takes a little more time than others. There is no switch that can be turned on to speed up the process.

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