Am I fertile now that I stopped the pill?

Question

I stopped taking OrthoTriCyclen Lo last Thursday and started my period, not on the usual date, two weeks early, yesterday. What does this mean? Am I fertile now? Is the medicine out of my system now? Will I be able to conceive yet?

Answer 1

I don't know if you're fertile, but if you're trying to conceive, I would check to see when you're ovulating. You can go to the website I listed below as a simple way to find out when you're ovulating.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

I'm a pharmacist, and it's hard to say.  It can take up to a year for regular fertility to return, however, and I can tell you from personal experience (twice), fertility can return on the next cycle.

The medicine is out of you system for certain.  What remains is for your hormonal cycle to normalize in the absence of the pill.  Whether this means you will ovulate now is uncertain, but if you don't want to get pregnant, use alternate means, because you may.

Answer 3

If you took all of the pills in the pack but are now on the "sugar pills" it is still in your system. What do you mean by stopped? If you aren't going to restart when you're supposed to with another new pack, you will be able to get pregnant. You are protected during your period when you've taken all of the pills that month correctly.

Answer 4

The early period you got was withdrawal bleeding. You know how you get a "period" during your placebo week? Well that's exactly what's happening to your body right now. Since you quit in the middle of the pack, it's coming early. It is not a real period, since you didn't ovulate. However, you should count this early period as the first day of a new cycle. You will be able to conceive whenever you begin to ovulate again. I would suggest charting your basal body temperature every morning. It will give you a good idea as to when you ovulate. Since you were on the pill for so long, it might take a while for you to start ovulating again, so be aware of that. I use fertility friend to chart: www.fertilityfriend.com