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General info re the pill – stopping/peroids returning/safety from pregnancy etc

GENERAL INFO RE THE PILL – STOPPING/PEROIDS RETURNING/SAFETYFROM PREGNANCY ETCGood Afternoon All,Just wanted to share some info for you all – as I knowinvariably there is a lot of confusion regarding this & when googling all Iseemed to end up on was sites for people who are coming off the pill and tryingto conceive as opposed to other reasons.Just to set the scene, I have been on my Pill Loestrin 20for over 10 years. I used to take it for 21 days on 7 days off until around ayear ago when I took it back to back constantly. I was advised this is safe. RecentlyI have been feeling like I have a bad case of PMT & bloated; so decided Ishould maybe take a break from my pill all together, as I researched & you aren’treally supposed to take more than 3 packs back to back.I therefore decided to come off the pill totally as wasworried that a 7 day break alone wouldn’t resolve the feelings. This shouldhopefully release some hormones & PMT then early 2015 possibly go back onthe pull & I will be less of a grump!Anyway I had an in depth chat with a really helpful lady onthe phone & thought I would share as it really helped me understand, andthere was a lack of info online – most websites I looked at in relation tostopping the pill were for conception reasons so opened a whole new can ofworms/advice/stuff to worry me about & confuse me!I stopped taking my pills mid packet as due to taking backto back I had no idea where in my cycle I would normally be anyway. IF you dothis then you are SAFE for 3-4 days from when you stop the pill, but not formuch longer afterwards as Sperm can live in your system for up to 5 days &if you ovulate in any of those 5 days, an egg COULD get fertilised. So you areNOT safe for 7 days when you STOP the pill totally. Therefore you NEED to useback up contraception, ie condoms etc and also FYI the ‘pull out’ method is NOTsafe, men ejaculate throughout sex – semen is NOT the only carrier of sperm –pre ejaculate fluid can carry it & it only takes ONE sperm to fertislie anegg.When stopping the pill you usually would get a withdrawalbleed (which is NOT a period) and you can ovulate at the same time, or anytimefrom then onwards. Due to the interruption of your cycle with hormones (thepill) your new cycle could be totally random & remain like this for a fewmonths. Therefore any advice re ‘tracking your cycle’ & when you are mostat risk of conception vs safest – is not really applicable. You could fallpregnant at ANY time once the 3-4 days are lapsed – as its totally per chancewhen you will ovulate.Your periods could return to normal very soon, or they couldremain random for a long time. So you can’t have one-two normal periods &assume you can track it all & be safe. Also if you started the pill a longtime ago when young to deal with period pains – the good news is research newsuggests that you may ‘outrgow’ these v painful periods by the time you reach25 (I hope so too!).My pill, Loestrin 20 is a low dosage pill so in ‘theory’ Ishould begin to return to normal sooner than if I were on a higher dose buteverybody is different. Bottom line is A) Don’t panic if you don’t have a periodwithin the first few months of stopping the pill altogether B) Don’t take risksno matter what you have read elsewhere re conception/fertility as it doesn’t applyin this instance C) Your periods could be totally random for at least 3-4months after stopping the pill.Just wanted to share as this made it a lot clearer for me& the lady was very helpful.

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