Pregnancy while taking birth control pills: symptoms, signs. Ectopic pregnancy while taking birth control pills

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

For many women, pregnancy is a long-awaited event. But there are no fewer girls who want to delay motherhood, and for this you need to use contraceptives.

Today, according to the World He alth Organization, the most reliable contraceptives are birth control pills. Their reliability reaches 98%, which is why more than 50% of women around the world prefer this particular method of protection against unwanted pregnancy.

But 98% is still not a complete guarantee, and in medical practice there are cases when pregnancy occurred while taking birth control pills. Why might this happen?

Pill Benefits

But is the high degree of reliability the only reason why women choose this type of contraception? Of course not.

Taking pills is very convenient. It is enough for a woman to take one tablet every day and not be afraid of an unwanted pregnancy, unlike the same condoms or suppositories that must be used before each sexual intercourse.

Also, birth control pills are the most economical options. A pack of pills for a month of taking can cost from 200 to 700 rubles, which is much cheaper than buying condoms.

But despite this, many women refuse this method of contraception, fearing an unwanted pregnancy. However, let's look into this issue in more detail.

Operating principle OK

To fully understand why pregnancy occurs when taking birth control pills, consider their principle of action.

The action of contraceptives is aimed at the implementation of the following functions:

• Preventing the process of maturation of the egg and its movement from the ovary to the uterus.
• Increase in the viscosity of the cervical secretion, due to which the spermatozoa cannot reach the "target" necessary for fertilization.

There are two types of pills:

1. Mini-drank. These are non-combination tablets that contain a prostagin, which is responsible for increasing the viscosity of the uterine secretion, which is why ovulationnot running all the way.
2. The action of the second type of contraceptive is stronger. These drugs contain the hormone estrogen, an increase in the concentration in the body of which leads to blocking the development of follicles in the ovary. This suggests that the egg simply does not mature and, accordingly, does not come out. Such drugs completely prevent ovulation.

Now that we roughly understand how these contraceptives work, let's figure out why a situation arises when even when taking birth control pills, the test shows pregnancy.

Causes of unwanted pregnancy

First of all, you must understand that pregnancy when taking birth control pills just does not come. It may occur due to additional reasons, as a result of which the effect of the drug on the body decreases, and, as a result, the concentration of substances necessary to stop ovulation will decrease. Many factors can contribute to this.

Missing pills

This is the most common cause of pregnancy.

There is a certain principle of taking birth control. Most often, this is a fairly simple schedule: 1 tablet every day at the same time. But often such a situation may arise that the girl forgets to take the last pill of the course and takes the necessary 7-day break, and after a week she begins to take a new package. So the woman skips wholedays, during which the ovaries can return to normal functioning, which may cause pregnancy after the end of taking birth control pills.

The same happens in the reverse situation. A girl can drink the entire course of pills, but after a seven-day break she forgets to take a pill. And again, skipping only one day dramatically increases the likelihood of getting pregnant. The same situation can occur if a girl forgets to take a pill in the middle of her cycle.

Vomiting or diarrhea

Often, troubles happen to our body that can provoke pregnancy when taking birth control pills.

It takes about 3-4 hours for the complete absorption of the active ingredients of the drug. If at this time you started vomiting or diarrhea, then it is likely that the substances of the contraceptive drug are not fully absorbed, which increases the risk of fertilization of the egg.

Additional medications

This reason is one of the most serious. The thing is that there are a large number of drugs that reduce the functioning of the substances necessary to prevent pregnancy. Most often, these drugs include antibiotics.

But the list of drugs doesn't end there. Antiallergic, anticonvulsant and antifungal drugs can also inhibit the effect of contraceptives. Therefore, before taking certain medications, it is necessary to consult a gynecologist and find out if they reducewhether they work with birth control pills.

And you also need to be careful with the teas that girls like to drink when losing weight. Many of them affect the action of contraceptives, which can provoke an unwanted pregnancy. The same applies to herbs. Many of them, after long-term use, still continue to have an effect on the body. For example, St. John's wort retains its effect on the body for another 2 weeks after the end of its intake. Therefore, if you plan to drink any decoctions, be very careful.

Psycho-emotional states

Pregnancy while taking birth control pills can also occur due to severe stress. Of course, this reason is the rarest, but if a woman regularly experiences severe stress at work or at home, this can radically affect the state of the whole organism as a whole and cause suppression of all its functions. Therefore, often when taking contraceptives, the doctor prescribes a course of sedatives for the first 2-3 months.

Delayed period

One of the problems a woman may experience when taking OCs (oral contraceptives) is a missed period. Many are immediately frightened and believe that pregnancy has occurred while taking birth control pills.

But don't panic right away. Since OK contain a small dose of hormones, the hormonal background changes when taking pills. This can cause your period to start earlier orlater than usual.

By the way, it is worth paying attention to the fact that many women have a cycle stabilized while taking OK, if they had problems with it before. Therefore, do not be afraid of such changes, especially if you have been taking birth control for only 1-2 months.

You should only be concerned if you have previously missed a pill, taken other serious drugs, or had unprotected intercourse before you started taking OC.

Pregnancy when OK

Many girls are concerned about the question: "What should I do if I become pregnant while taking birth control pills?"

If you decide to keep the pregnancy, then you should not worry. Although a woman may begin to worry about the he alth of her unborn child, which can be affected by taking birth control pills. But there is no need to panic. Medical practice has shown that taking OK does not affect the development of the fetus, and the risk of pathologies in this case is the same as in cases where the pregnancy was planned.

The main rule you should follow is to immediately stop taking contraceptives and go to the gynecologist if you find out you are pregnant.

However, there are situations when a woman does not know about her pregnancy and continues to take birth control. In this case, the issue of fetal safety is much more serious. Although over many years of research, doctors have not been able to find a direct link between taking OK and fetal development. It has been established that in the first 5 weeks of pregnancy, the use of contraceptivedoes not affect the development of the embryo. But already from the 6th week, the child's genitals develop, and during this period, taking hormones is at least undesirable.

Symptoms

And now it's worth talking about the situation when pregnancy has already occurred while taking birth control pills. Symptoms may be quite different or absent at all, however, there are a number of signs by which a girl can determine that she is pregnant:

• Pain in the chest and mammary glands. This symptom is often observed during pregnancy, however, many girls have such pain during menstruation or out of habit from taking OK. In any case, if you observe only this symptom, there is no need to worry in advance.
• Common signs of pregnancy (including birth control pills) are nausea and vomiting.
• Change in taste preferences. Such a symptom may well occur in the early stages, when, for example, a woman liked a certain product, and during pregnancy there was an aversion to it.
• Pain in the lower abdomen and back. Be on the lookout for these symptoms, as they can indicate not only pregnancy, but also he alth problems.

In any case, even all these symptoms in the aggregate cannot be guaranteed to indicate that you are pregnant. To get an accurate result, it is worth doing a pregnancy test. When taking birth control pills, this happens, so it's betterplay it safe. Or go straight to a gynecologist's appointment, where an hCG test will be done.

Planned pregnancy is a matter of time

Many women and girls are concerned about the question: "How quickly can pregnancy be planned after taking birth control pills?"

For each woman, the terms are purely individual. It is enough for someone to wait a couple of months, and for someone it will take about six months to restore the normal functioning of the reproductive organs. The important thing is that you should not panic if you fail to get pregnant in the first 1-3 months after stopping OK. But if this problem persists after 6-7 months of regular attempts, you should see a doctor.

But there is also an opposite effect, which in medical practice is called the "rebraund effect". In other words, pregnancy upon cancellation. After stopping the intake of OK, a new change in the hormonal background occurs, due to which the likelihood of becoming pregnant increases significantly. Due to this effect, infertility treatment is carried out: first, a woman takes birth control pills for a certain time, and after a certain period they are canceled, due to which the girl can achieve the desired pregnancy.

Reverse side of the coin

But, unfortunately, not all women understand all the responsibility that concerns taking OK. Many prescribe drugs for themselves without thinking about the possible serious consequences. Meanwhile, there is an important rule for taking oral contraceptives: after 3-6 months of taking it, you must definitely take a break asat least 1 month. During this time, the body begins to function again, as before, and the risk of addiction to OK is reduced to zero.

However, not all girls think about any cycle and take drugs for several years. Not surprisingly, this causes many problems with the reproductive system, which can be irreparable. At best, one of the problems can be an ectopic pregnancy when taking birth control pills. At worst, infertility, which will be very difficult, if not impossible to cure.

In addition, today there are many types of OK, and in order to choose the right pills for herself, a woman needs to pass a series of tests and get a doctor's prescription. Only in this case can you be sure that oral contraceptives will not harm your he alth.

Summing up

While completing this rather big course on taking birth control pills, I would like to give a few recommendations and tips to follow:

• If you notice spotting or light bleeding during OK, don't panic. This is a normal occurrence when receiving OK.
• Regularly visit the gynecologist while taking birth control. The doctor must monitor your he alth to prevent serious consequences.
• Your own he alth. The appearance of serious symptoms prescribed in the instructions indicates the need to stop taking OK.
• Oral contraceptives can not stop drinking on their owndesire, otherwise it can cause a withdrawal effect and a sharp failure of the hormonal background.
• Try not to skip your pills.
• Be sure to read the instructions before taking OK, even if the doctor explained everything to you in detail.

Now you know if pregnancy is possible while taking birth control pills. You know the main reasons for this phenomenon. And most importantly - remember: there are many myths that oral contraceptives are terribly unhe althy. It is not true. If a woman follows all the doctor's recommendations and drinks OK according to a strict schedule, then no problems will ever arise. Be he althy and love each other!