A guest post by Nat Kringoudis 

This is my third blog post on the pill – I don’t usually blog on the same topic, however this is probably the topic I am most passionate about as I see the effects the pill has on fertility every day in the clinic.  If you’re not up to speed on the previous posts on the pill, please browse through them: “The Pill is it for you?” and “More on the pill – PCOS, Endometrosis and the rest”.

There are a number of women who are fortunate enough to be able to come off the pill and fall pregnant easily – which is wonderful news.  But in the clinic, unfortunately we see large numbers of women who find it difficult or are left sub-fertile once coming off the pill.  It’s unfortunately something they didn’t realise or were not made aware of when they first started taking it.

So – how exactly does the pill affect fertility?

One of the most essential factors in successful conception is fertile cervical mucus.  The cervix secretes this mucus to aid in transportation of sperm from the vagina to the uterus.  The mucus actually feeds and nurtures the sperm – after the semen is ejaculated, sperm travel to the cervical crypts to be nourished, ready to make the next stage of the journey up into the uterus.  The pill degenerates these crypts and in turn the cervical mucus is diminished.  The good news for most women is that these grow back with time.  These realities need to be considered when trying for a baby. I worry that a common misconception is that we can fall pregnant as soon as we stop the pill, and this means many ordinarily healthy woman panic when they can’t immediately fall pregnant – and it creates so much extra stress in an already stressful time. When planning to fall pregnant after coming off the pill, it is important to allow adequate time for a women’s fertility to return to normal levels. It isn’t unusual for this to take months. I see so many healthy women consumed by the stress of not falling pregnant immediately. As you will read – falling pregnant as soon as you stop the pill isn’t ideal at all.

The pill knocks our hormones out of whack pretty badly – again adding a level of difficulty when it comes to falling pregnant when freshly off the pill.  In 2004 a study  ‘time to pregnancy’ 1 found that couples coming off the pill took 2-3 times longer to conceive than to those who were not previously taking it.  It is important to factor in at least 6 months of supportive natural fertility treatment after taking the pill to best prepare your body for conception and to ensure that the mother’s body has everything it needs to be able to pass on to the baby – resulting in healthier babies.

Did you know the pill alters our senses?   A pregnant woman senses are heightened, especially smell  –  this means pregnant women smell and crave particularly odd foods.  Research has found that women in their most fertile phase of their cycle are most sensitive to smell (especially that of male sweat), just as pregnant women had increased sensitivity to food and odours.  This study went on to find the hormone mix in the pill is very similar to the first months of pregnancy meaning that women on the pill are consistently more sensitive to food smells and less sensitive to the smell of male sweat.  Now if you are wondering what my point is here, lets put all that together.  Our sense of smell, our own body smell and our immune system are all wired up together and therefore women who are not on the pill are attracted to males that smell differently from themselves.  When partners who smell different from each other have children, their children have a wider range of immunity that if their parents smelt the same or similar – isn’t it fascinating!  This  study also went on to find because the pill reverses the usual smell-immune system signals that women who choose to mate with a male that has a similar immune system will have increased difficulty falling pregnant – and even when they do fall pregnant  -the child may be born with a lessened immune system.

Many of you have already made the connection between their fertility and the pill and I commend you for being in touch with your body.  Often women coming off the pill have long cycles or do not see a period return for on average six months.  Unfortunately the pill also has an affect of the hormones during the menstrual cycle and ovulation.  If these hormones aren’t acting in the correct way, a woman might find that she does ovulate during the right phase of her cycle but she doesn’t maintain enough hormone to support the growing embryo, giving her a short menstrual cycle.  These issues sound daunting, but are most definitely treatable and respond very well to Chinese medicine and natural fertility treatments.

In addition to all of the above – the pill changes how your body metabolises nutrients. Your nutritional balance is compromised whilst taking and whilst withdrawing from the pill.  In the instance of pregnancy, this can be concerning as  essential nutrients are necessary for healthily fetal development.  A concerning example is folic acid levels, which is considerably reduced in pill takers.  Women who conceive within 6 months of coming off the pill present with less red blood cells and plasma folate levels which can lead to recurrent miscarriage.

Zinc is also of equal importance and is stripped by taking the pill.  Catching up of the adequate dose of zinc is imperative – low zinc can be linked to stretch marks, a less elastic perineums, cracked nipples and prolonged labours.  I know I will be certain to keep my zinc up during this pregnancy!  Importantly, zinc keeps our copper levels in check where high copper levels are said to be a contributing factor to post natal depression.  Babies who are born registering zinc deficiency are said cry more and are difficult to console.  Not a great mix for a mother suffering post natal depression.  On top of this, zinc is also responsible for shaping a healthy immune system, brain, skeletal muscle and bones.  In Australia, one in five children suffer from asthma, which is an immune dysfunction.  It seems Zinc is one of the best things you can take for your body and something that needs to be considered well before conception. In addition to zinc, selenium and a host of other vitamins are essential to rebalance hormones -setting the body up for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

It clearly isn’t ideal to fall pregnant immediately after coming off the pill, however it does happen.  In these instances, it is essential to be on a practitioner high grade multi vitamin, available from your practitioner. Practitioner quality products have greater therapeutic effect and therefore are my recommendation in these circumstances as the levels and quality in these products make up for what the pill has zapped out of the system.