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 Roy Pitkin, M.D., is a professor of obstetrics and
gynecology and is the former chair of the ob/gyn
department at the University of California, Los
Angeles School of Medicine. He is a frequent advisor
to national health agencies on women's health issues and has
received numerous international honors for this work.
Q: Can I start trying to have a baby as soon as I take my last birth-control pill, or should I wait to clear the drug out of my system?
A: There are no known adverse effects in conceiving right after taking oral contraceptives. However, doing so can
make it difficult to calculate your due date. A woman's menstrual cycle is often irregular immediately after she stops
taking birth-control pills; in particular, the timing of ovulation during the first cycle is quite unpredictable. So if you
were to conceive during that first cycle, the standard method of estimating the start of the pregnancy by
pinpointing the first day of your last period would be unreliable. Ideally, after stopping the Pill, you should use
barrier forms of contraception for two to three months before trying to conceive. If conception occurs within these first two or three months, it may be advisable to use some alternative method of estimating pregnancy, such as ultrasound.
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