When should you quit hormonal birth control?

DaysyUSA
DaysyUSA
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

If you’re wondering when you should stop using hormonal birth control, the answer is, whenever you want to! Although many women decide to go off hormonal birth control because they want to get pregnant, many women also choose to stop because they are experiencing unwanted, difficult birth control side effects. If you are wanting a baby, after you come off the birth control, you’ll want to get to grips with your cycle — to know when you’re fertile and when you’re ovulating. If you are just done with synthetic hormones and how they make you feel, then all you need is an effective alternative for avoiding pregnancy.

Women sometimes stay on hormonal birth control for much longer than they’d like, because they do not believe that effective, hormone-free alternatives exist. They’ve come to think their only choice is hormonal birth control or an unplanned pregnancy — we know that’s not true. Those that want to get pregnant get mixed messages from everyone from their friends to their doctors about when they should stop using hormonal birth control and when they should start trying for a baby. We’ll look at both these paths and their possibilities.

So, if you’re looking to get pregnant you may want to consider going off your hormonal birth control at a point that will give you a full year to conceive. Although your body will be rid of the synthetic hormones and birth control side effects relatively quickly, it may take your body some time to start making its own hormones again. This means it make take some time for you to ovulate and to experience a fertile phase of your cycle again. Tracking your cycle with a fertility monitor like Daysy is going to make it easier for you to understand what’s going on with body and to know when exactly you start ovulating again.

Although it depends on the kind of hormonal birth control you’ve used and the time you were on it, any prior hormonal imbalance issues you may have experienced, and your overall general health (diet, exercise) — it can take several months for your body to be prepared for a pregnancy. You may want to be extra careful about what you eat, drink, how much you sleep, your stress levels, and your choice of supplements during this time to maximize your chance of conceiving. Some women will experience “Post-Pill Syndrome” and this can lead to temporary post-hormonal birth control infertility. Thankfully, it’s treatable with diet and lifestyle changes and certain supplements.

If you’re thinking about coming off hormonal birth control because either you have experienced birth control side effects, wondered how effective is birth control or you’re just curious to see what your own cycles and hormones are like, then you’re in the right place! The most important concern for you is finding an effective, hormone-free alternative that helps you to prevent pregnancy successfully. If you’re in a committed relationship and want to avoid condoms, you do have choices.

Even if you went on hormonal birth control because you once had cramps, acne, irregular periods or other cycle symptoms, this does not mean your experience post-hormonal birth control will be the same. Many women start on hormonal birth control when they’re teenagers and their reproductive systems are not yet matured, making symptoms like these more likely. Your cycle in your 20s, or 30s, can be significantly different the cycle you had in your teens. If you were diagnosed with PCOS or Endometriosis prior to taking the Pill you will want to monitor your specific health issues and get advice from your doctor, as well as experts in functional or integrative medicine who can provide advice on treating the root causes without continuing to use hormonal birth control.

You can go off hormonal birth control whenever you are ready — you don’t even need to wait til you have completed your latest pack. For some women the transition will be easy, for others there may be “withdrawal” side effects of birth control for a time — acne is commonly experienced, insomnia, mood swings — but this will pass within weeks, especially if you take care of your health and support your body in regaining its own cycles and hormones as quickly as it can.

The first “period” you have will be a “withdrawal bleed” — the effect of your body coming off hormonal birth control — but, the second period will be a real period. Just because you’re having periods though, it does not mean you are ovulating at first — tracking your cycle will help you to check in on what’s going on with your unique body. Even if you want to avoid pregnancy, having ovulation every cycle is important for your short and long term health goals. Tracking your cycle can help you to take control of your fertility and your health without hormonal birth control.

Daysy fertility tracker is hormone-free, hassle-free, and 99.3% effective for planning or preventing pregnancy. Available globally.

Originally published at usa.daysy.me.

Hormone free, hassle free - meet Daysy, a fertility computer for planning or preventing pregnancy with 99.3% accuracy.

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