Is taking the pill for years a brake on getting pregnant quickly? Should there be a delay after stopping the pill before embarking on baby trials? So many questions that many women ask themselves about the links between pregnancy and the pill. Our responses in the light of the latest studies.

Does taking the pill for long years have an influence on fertility? Many women ask themselves the question. Rest assured: studies show that taking the pill, even taken continuously for years, has no effect on the resumption of fertility after stopping contraception. The study carried out within the framework of Euras-OC (European program for active surveillance on oral contraceptives) and involving 60 women showed that the month following stopping the pill, 000% of them were pregnant, a rate equivalent to the chances of pregnancy in each cycle. Research has also shown that the duration of pill taking had no effect on the chances of pregnancy either: 21% of women who took the pill for less than two years became pregnant within the year, against 79,3% in women who took it for more than two years (81).

Wait 2-3 months after stopping the pill before starting the baby tests or start immediately? This is another common question among aspiring moms-to-be. While some gynecologists still recommend letting a few cycles pass in order to have better ovulation and uterine lining, this advice would not be based on any scientific fact.

Note, however, that a certain laziness may appear when stopping contraception. The contraceptive pill prevents the phenomenon of ovulation by inhibiting some of the cyclic secretions of hormones. Also after stopping the pill, sluggishness may occur when brain activity resumes that stimulates the ovaries (2). This phenomenon varies greatly between women: some will return to a normal cycle as soon as the pill is stopped, while in others, it will take a few months.

If the periods do not return within 3 to 6 months, it is advisable to consult your gynecologist to detect a possible problem. It happens that the pill, which induces artificial rules by a withdrawal hemorrhage (during the fall of hormones at the end of the pack), has masked during the entire duration of its taking ovulation disorders, which will then reappear at stopping the pill. The most common causes of these disorders are hyperprolactinemia, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), anorexia nervosa or premature ovarian failure (3).

The pill is not 100% reliable and an oversight or an error in taking can quickly happen, it is necessary to do a pregnancy test as soon as a period is late, pill or not.

The pregnancy test is based on the detection in the urine of hCG (chorionic gonadotropin hormone), a hormone secreted by the egg upon implantation. The pill has no effect on the secretion of this hormone during pregnancy, nor on its detection in the urine via the pregnancy test. The reliability of the pregnancy test is therefore the same whether you take the pill or not.

It often happens that some expectant mothers continue to take the pill until they find out they are pregnant. Rest assured: a large study carried out on 900 babies born between 000 and 1997 showed that the prevalence of congenital malformations was similar between children not exposed to the pill and those who were exposed at the very beginning of pregnancy ( 2011).