Could I get pregnant this way??

R

Rachelsmom

New Member
First, I want to introduce myself. I am a huge Cathe fan and have been doing her tapes for years. I had my 3rd child 3 months ago and have come to this site to read for motivation for a while. I am prompted to ask this question here because you all seem like such a knowledgeable supportive group. hopefully someone can help me!

I am wondering if I made a HUGE mistake recently that will have life changing consequences.

I had started taking birth control pills last month after the birth of my 3rd child- I taking the combination type since I am not nursing. My baby is now 4 months old.

I took a full pack then started on my second pack. On day 12 and 13/14 of my cycle my husband and I had sex. Meanwhile I decided I am very unhappy with hormonal birth control because it is making my breasts huge and I am having trouble losing weight. Last week my DH agreed that if I am not happy with the pill I should just stop it and not take anymore. DH and I figured if I just stopped taking pills midcycle I would get my period early and then my body could return to normal. So I took my last pill about 12 hours after we had sex (day 14) and have not taken any since- this was last week. We have not had sex since day 13/14

But I just read an article that sperm can live for 48-72 hours AFTER you have sex and I took my last pill 12 hours after we had sex and that was day 13/14. Do you all think it is possible to ovluate immediately after taking your last pill if it was in the middle of your cylcle?? Did I make a big mistake by stopping my pills in the middle of my cycle and so soon after having sex?

I should add DH and I are VERY fertile, we have 3 kids under age 5 (including a 4 month old baby), all were planned but we concieved the first month with each of them.

I think if I were to get pregnant right now, I would just have a nervous breakdown and cry for 9 months straight.

Is it possible I could be pregnant? I guess there is not much I could do at this point and wait but I must say I'm just flipping out over the fact that I may have done something pretty stupid. I know DH will freak if I am pregnant also.
 
Be forewarned that this is my uneducated opinion, but I have read alot about birth control pills since I've been on them for 16.5 years. Even though the sperm can live for 2 or 3 days, I believe the pills you had taken beforehand would have still kept you from ovulating. If I'm not mistaken (somebody correct me if I'm wrong), but doesn't the pill make your brain control when you ovulate. If you had been on the pill for a couple of months then I don't think there could have been an egg in the falopian (sp?) tubes to begin with, so therefore pregnancy would be nearly impossible.

I'll quit now since I'm terrible at explaining things. But I think you probably have nothing at all to worry about. Good luck.
 
Hi Rachelsmom,

Firstly - welcome to the Forum and congratulations on your latest addition!

With regard to your concerns, my (unmedical!) opinion is the same as Iwseymour. I have little experience with the Pill as I too had problems finding a suitable brand which didn't either bloat me out or turn me into She-Monster-From-Hormone-Hell! However, from what I remember, a woman's body would normally take about 7 days to ovulate AFTER stopping the Pill (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong?). That's assuming that her body gets back to "normal" straight away! Now, this is only my vague memory and this may vary depending on the different types of Pill and how they work. Personally, I would say your risk of pregnancy is low.

I know it's easy for me to say, but try not to worry about it too much - worrying in itself can cause your period to be late, which would obviously cause you even more upset in the long run.

Take care, and let us know how things work out!

Kaz.
Today Is The Tomorrow We Worried About Yesterday And All Is Well.
 
Hi Rachelsmom, welcome to the forum!

I'm not sure just exactly how the pill works, especially since there are several different types to take, but I do remember that they're only supposed to be about 99% effective. Kind of scary to think that, for every 100 times a couple makes woopy, there's a chance the pill will fail once. Honestly, I think they're probably more effective than that since I was on the pill for about 13 years and never got pregnant until I went off and tried to conceive. I don't know, maybe it's supposed to be 99.9% effective...but just the same, they're not 100% perfect, that's why medical folks will advise people to use an additional form of contraception.

My understanding is that, even if you take them correctly the rest of the month, if you miss just one day you could be making yourself more vulnerable to conceiving. Since you had taken a whole pack before the month in question, they should've been effective but only if you were taking the pack you were currently on correctly.

Hopefully you haven't conceived since it's so soon after your last baby but I think it would be wise to operate on the assumption that it's altogether possible and take appropriate precautions, like definitely not going back on the pill.

Hope all goes well in every way! Please let us know when you find out for sure.
 
Hi,

Thanks for all responses! Well I just could not take the suspense and called my Dr. today for his advice. He told me that the odds of concieving are very very minimal since it would take my body a few days to realize I had stopped the pill and by then the sperm would most likely not be living. He also gave me a mini-lecture (in a nice concerned manner, not a patronizing one) about how I should never stop the pill in the middle of a cycle.

If my period is more than 3 weeks late he told me to come in for a pregnancy test but hopefully it won't come to that!

He suggested I change to a different brand of pill. I told him I did NOT want to be pregnant now when my baby is only 4 months and I have 2 other small kids and a lot of weight to lose, but in 2 or 3 years DH and I may want another baby so I needed reliable birth control that was reversable.

He told me that the pill was probably the best choice for me and although no birth control is 100% effective, it is more reliable than what I was thinking about (condoms or diaphram or even a combo of both).

I did not relize that just because you don't do well on one pill, others may affect you differently so I'm gonna try a differnt brand.

Anyway, thanks for the input :)
 
>I'm not sure just exactly how
>the pill works, especially since
>there are several different types
>to take, but I do
>remember that they're only supposed
>to be about 99% effective.
>Kind of scary to think
>that, for every 100 times
>a couple makes woopy, there's
>a chance the pill will
>fail once.


This is not exactly right. The 99% refers to a year of using the pill. So, for every 100 couples using the pill for a year, one is likely to have an unplanned pregancy.

And, it is the same for other birth control methods- they aren't referring to # of times, but how well it works over the course of a year.

Thank goodness!!!
 
pills

maybe some different things to try:
in the pills-maybe Yasmin...has a mild diuretic to help combat bloating. or just a lower dose, as long as you take them VERY regularly they are just as effective
there's a new vaginal ring...the name escapes me, but it's hormonal as well and supposedly better tolerated, you put a ring in the vagina and leave it there for 21 days, take it out for 1 wk for your period and start over. Supposedly you can't (and your partner can't) feel it.
And for some it's controversial, but the IUD is something to consider, esp. Mirena-it's hormonal but only locally (in the uterus). IUD's are much safer and better tolerated now than the older models and can be left in place for at least 5 years.
anyway-thought I'd put in my thoughts too!
take care
julie
 
I know you are trying to be helpful with your response. But I think your interpretation of the 99% effectiveness of the pill is incorrect. My understanding from reading the insert from the pill and tables comparing effectiveness of various birth control menthods is that this is the interpretation: After one year of use, 99% of couples will NOT get pregnant using the pill (1% will). A lot of times these statistics include ALL couples who use a particular method whether or not they use tham correctly (e.g. miss a day).

I hope you understand the difference in the interpretations. Since I am an engineer, I deal with this stuff all the time. It is very easy to misinterpret statistics!
 
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