Health & Pregnancy

Past Pill Use Doesn't Lower Fertility

No Need to Wait

The new study seems to refute previous research that the pregnancy rate is lower than normal in the first few months after women stop the pill, says Richard Frieder, MD, attending physician at Santa Monica-UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital in California and assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. "This study suggests even in the initial couple of months [after stopping the pill], there is no difference in pregnancy rates [among past pill users and nonusers]," he says.

In the past, Frieder says, some doctors may have advised women to wait before trying to get pregnant for a number of reasons. That time lag, for instance, would allow the woman to ovulate and have a menstrual period, and the obstetrician could more easily gauge the delivery date.

"In these times, we have ultrasound [to date the beginning of the pregnancy]," he says. "So there's really no reason to wait [a while after going off the pill to try to get pregnant]."