Pregnancy-The pill cause birth defects?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2004
Pregnancy-The pill cause birth defects?
1
Wed, 09-29-2004 - 11:47pm
My questions are that.. I think I maybe pregnant but Im not absolutely positive and I haven't stopped my birth control because I may not be pregnant and if I stop I could end up getting pregnant in the long run. Could it cause birth defects if I stayed on my pill up to a week or two? If I'm not pregnant does birth control cause sterility? I've been on orthotricyclen (dont know if i spelled it right) and i missed two pills one week and to make up for it i did what the instruction on the pack said to do. Then the next week i missed another and i followed the instructions again. I didn't use a backup method which was stupid. I've been on birth control for about 3 years. The longer you are on birth control does that increase your chances in infertility? Thanks for any input.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-14-2004
Thu, 09-30-2004 - 12:03am
Let`s see here...

First, since it seems that you`re missing your BCPs frequently lately, have you thought about switching to another method, like Nuvaring, the OrthoEvra patch, or DepoProvera? They don`t require remembering to do something daily and are pretty much just as effective as BCPs, as long as you use them correctly.



>> Could it cause birth defects if I stayed on my pill up to a week or two? If I'm not pregnant does birth control cause sterility? <<

No, BCPs don`t cause birth defects. "Sterility" as in completely unable to conceive children? No way. BCPs are extremely reversible forms of birth control. Unless you have a pre-existing condition that would prevent you from conceiving, BCP shouldn`t affect your fertility at all.

>> The longer you are on birth control does that increase your chances in infertility? <<

No. Well, BCPs and most other methods of BC will not make you infertile long-term. For women on DepoProvera, it can take around a year for ovulation (and therefore a chance to get pregnant) to return and some women blame an inability to conceive on Depo, although there has been no scientific evidence to support this claim. This is because Depo stays in your system for an extended period of time, though, and is a really high dose of hormones. BCPs don`t do that - relatively small daily doses that control your cycle with each pill, rather than one large dose to do the job. BCP hormones should clear out of your system quickly after you stop taking them, which is good if you want to get pregnant, and bad if you don`t!

I would definitely recommend back-up methods when you miss a pill, for at least 7 days, and maybe you should look into other areas of this message board that give other options of BC that require less of a memory.

Lena