For many women, taking the pill is more a matter of delaying pregnancy until the time is right rather than preventing it all together.

So, the big question becomes, how long after you stop taking the pill can you expect to become pregnant? No two women are alike but, generally speaking, pregnancy is possible the next time you ovulate. You may ovulate within two weeks after finishing up your last package of birth control pills. So, theoretically, you could become pregnant almost immediately. However, as we all know, there are many variables. Some couples try for years to become parents without success.

It almost seems an unfair trick of the heavens that it’s sometimes the women who don’t want to become pregnant who easily do.

That means, if you’re dead set against pregnancy, and you stop the pill, you need to begin another form of contraception immediately. I actually recommend that my patients begin using an alternate contraceptive before getting off the pill so they get into the habit of using it.

Otherwise, you may have to get into the habit of changing diapers.

– Yvonne Thornton, MD, MPH