Birth control before & after DS
Not to start a ******g contest but I just want to clarify in case others are using this for education.
While you are correct that OCPs do suppress the ovaries and everything in that paragraph is true, it's not necessarily in context and in fact supports what I said.
It is true that OCPs suppress follicular development prior to the the start of the mentstrual cycle and prevents the dominant follicle from being ovulated. In infertility treatments, this is important because you want to be able to harvest as many follicles as possible at the same stage. In real life, those follicles remain small and separate and cannot produce a pregnancy. Estrogen suppresses the feedback cycle. Over time, the feedback loop gets "sluggish" and after multiple years of OC use, it can take extra time to get the system running at full speed.
Plus, in older women who have natural FSH decreases, the stimulation of antral follicles often is limited, hence a "slowing of the response time" is sub-optimal for rapid return to fertility.
That being said, we are talking months here, not decades. The study that comes to mind looked at 558 nulliparous women who stopped their contraception in order to get pregnant. At the end of one year, the percentage of women who had given birth after discontinuing OCs was 32% but 54% in patients using non-hormonal barrier methods. However, after 3 years the numbers were identical. There is another study that is a little fuzzier for me as I haven't read it for a while, but I recall it had several thousand women and it found that 25% of women took more than a year to conceive while only 8 or 9% of patients using a non-hormonal barrier method (I think it was a diaphragm that was studied) took 13+ months.
Doesn't mean it will happen for everyone. There are LOTS of folks who get pregnant right away. There are LOTS of folks who miss one pill and get pregnant! But, statistically, the time to return to full fertility is extended slightly by long term OC use (I think the industry standard for "long term" is 6 months+.) However, in 75% of patients in that last study were able to conceive in less than 12 mos. While that's lower than 90% patients not taking hormones, it's still an excellent outcome.
I'm "in the business" as well.
I too went through many IVF cycles, unsuccessfully (which SUCKED!!!), so we decided to adopt. 3 months later, pregnant on my own. Well not entirely on my own. My husband helped. ;)
While you are correct that OCPs do suppress the ovaries and everything in that paragraph is true, it's not necessarily in context and in fact supports what I said.
It is true that OCPs suppress follicular development prior to the the start of the mentstrual cycle and prevents the dominant follicle from being ovulated. In infertility treatments, this is important because you want to be able to harvest as many follicles as possible at the same stage. In real life, those follicles remain small and separate and cannot produce a pregnancy. Estrogen suppresses the feedback cycle. Over time, the feedback loop gets "sluggish" and after multiple years of OC use, it can take extra time to get the system running at full speed.
Plus, in older women who have natural FSH decreases, the stimulation of antral follicles often is limited, hence a "slowing of the response time" is sub-optimal for rapid return to fertility.
That being said, we are talking months here, not decades. The study that comes to mind looked at 558 nulliparous women who stopped their contraception in order to get pregnant. At the end of one year, the percentage of women who had given birth after discontinuing OCs was 32% but 54% in patients using non-hormonal barrier methods. However, after 3 years the numbers were identical. There is another study that is a little fuzzier for me as I haven't read it for a while, but I recall it had several thousand women and it found that 25% of women took more than a year to conceive while only 8 or 9% of patients using a non-hormonal barrier method (I think it was a diaphragm that was studied) took 13+ months.
Doesn't mean it will happen for everyone. There are LOTS of folks who get pregnant right away. There are LOTS of folks who miss one pill and get pregnant! But, statistically, the time to return to full fertility is extended slightly by long term OC use (I think the industry standard for "long term" is 6 months+.) However, in 75% of patients in that last study were able to conceive in less than 12 mos. While that's lower than 90% patients not taking hormones, it's still an excellent outcome.
I'm "in the business" as well.
I too went through many IVF cycles, unsuccessfully (which SUCKED!!!), so we decided to adopt. 3 months later, pregnant on my own. Well not entirely on my own. My husband helped. ;)
Significant increased risk of DVT/PE with the Patches too.
Best options are IUCs or the Ring as far as safety goes. I don't know much about Implanon (the rod thing) as it isn't as widely used but I would suspect it's similar to Norplant which got taken off the market.
Key is to talk to your doctor. They will have experience with you and with each of these methods so they'll be able to advise you better than we will!
Best options are IUCs or the Ring as far as safety goes. I don't know much about Implanon (the rod thing) as it isn't as widely used but I would suspect it's similar to Norplant which got taken off the market.
Key is to talk to your doctor. They will have experience with you and with each of these methods so they'll be able to advise you better than we will!
P. Poster
on 8/24/11 1:19 am
on 8/24/11 1:19 am
I have an IUD. There was no other option for me, for several reasons, but mainly because I wanted to ensure I didn't have to worry about malabsorption... i LOVE my IUD, wish I had done it years ago. The insertion was nothing. If you've had a child, it compares a bit to a strong contraction, then it's over. I spotted for about a week post insertion, and that was it.
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