Infertility and birth control

Many women who are contemplating the use of birth control fear that these medications may interfere with their fertility. However, not using this form of contraception may increase chances of undesired pregnancy. Therefore, a majority of women are not sure whether they can use these forms of contraception safely or not. The following lines will try to shed some light on the matter.

Infertility and Birth Control

About 33% of all women believe that taking oral contraceptives can make you infertile. Yet, numerous studies, which have been carried out, beg to differ, claiming that no connections were found between oral contraception and infertility.

A study was carried out, involving a group of 60,000 women who stopped taking their birth control pills in order to conceive. The time necessary for conception was taken into consideration, along with the type of hormones the pills they were using consisted of.

The Results

Amazingly, the results of this study showed that 21% of women involved in the testing got pregnant during the first month of their abstinence from birth control pills. The fertility rate in women for a single month is normally 20 to 25%, so no changes were present, as far as these women were concerned. Another 50% of women got pregnant by the end of the 3rd month. All in all, after a year, 80% of women got pregnant, matching the chances of pregnancy which women who have never taken birth control pills have.

Thus, birth control pills do not cause infertility once a person stops taking them. Also, long term use of oral contraceptives does not affect fertility of a woman in any way, once she discontinues the use of these medications. In fact, 79.3% of women participating in the study got pregnant during the first year of abstinence from using birth control pills for up to 2 years. On the other hand, women who used this form of birth control for two years and more, got pregnant in 81% of cases, once they stopped using the contraception.

The types of hormones used in the pills made no difference. However, older age of women resulted in lower fertility rates.

All in all, rest assured that the birth control pills, regardless of the type you are taking, will not make you infertile once you stop taking them. So, do not refrain from using this method of contraception due to these reasons. Rather, take advantage of birth control pills without worrying about your chances of having a child one day.