Missing pills / maybe infertile?

[x-unbreakable-o.livejournal.com]

Im not the most organized person when it comes to taking my birth control pills on time. Sometimes I will honestly forget. It doesnt matter now as Im not having sex but before when I was it obviously mattered. However, there have been times in the last 3 years that I've missed up to about 3 pills (not on purpose!) because life got hectic and I'd just plain forget. It'd happen most frequently in the middle of the packs sometimes at the end or beginning but normally about the middle. I was having sex at the time, quite frequently with my ex over the last 2.5 years. As weird as it sounds, it seems odd to me that I didnt end up pregnant at some point. I know that typical use of the pill is about 93% I believe and if you are over a certain weight its even less.

Im honestly worried that something could be wrong with me or even him. I'd rather find out now when Im not trying to get pregnant rather than later when I am. My question is.. should I worry about this?? I have a doctors appointment soon and Im not sure I wanna bring it up to him or even how to bring it up to him.

Am I totally crazy or am I right to worry?? Help me :(

x-posted to birthcontrol

Comments

[sarasnee.livejournal.com]

Although missing is never safe pregnancy-wise, it's always possible that you were still protected and never ovulated. Even if you had, it is a very short timespan that the egg is available for the sperm to "attack" lol, so I wouldn't be worried. Think of it in terms of fertile people who are trying to conceive. If you do it on the wrong day, if he has a slightly lower sperm count, it could take months to years for fertile people to conceive. So yes, I would try not to worry. If you wanted to bring it up with the doc, you could just say something like, "I've missed a lot of pills absentmindedly and never got pregnant, so I'm worried about my fertility." He may be able to ease your worries.

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[hapi-phantom.livejournal.com]

I;ve been really forgetful about taking BC and haven't gotten pregnant. I don't really think there's anything to worry about. I have a friend who has a 5 year old son and has been trying to conceive for about 3 years now. She just found out she's pregnant. It just takes time.

[oboegoddess.livejournal.com]

Some people take several months to get their cycle going again and have the ability to get preganant after stopping BC, so I think it's perfectly normal that you didn't get pregant despite skipping pills. Even if you weren't on BC, there are only a few days each month that you can actually get pregnant, and being on BC means you probably aren't even ovulating.

Of course some people can get pregnant right away if they miss pills, so this shouldn't be relied on if you don't want to be pregnant, but there's no guarantee that you will get pregnant from skipping pills either. It's just a higher risk.

[spiffychicky.livejournal.com]

I can honestly say I've thought the same thing. I was on BC for 1 year and a half sexually, active, broke up with this boy, (stupidly) stopped the pill (it was ravaging my body, like every pill horror story ever with that brand... ugh), then picked up with another boy a month later. And with this boy, there was almost never any birth control used, hormonal or otherwise (he was kind of an asshole who couldn't stay up with condoms and I didn't push is because I was a stupid teenager who wanted to get laid). I tried my best to avoid ovulation days, but this relationship was sexual for a good 6 months with little to no protection period. In retrospect I'm so confused about why I didn't get pregnant. I'm guessing it was just some seriously luck timing. I'm back on the pill (with a different, less shitty boy) and I've never missed a pill but I'm certainly nowhere near perfect use and still no babies. Our bodies are wierd sometimes.

But really, like you said typical use is still 93%. That's still relatively high. And if you don't have any current medical issues or a family history of infertility, you shouldn't have any reason to worry until you're 35+

[archangelbeth]

When my spouse and I "stopped trying not to" (i.e., stopped using condoms, but weren't doing anything to try to ensure conception), it took about a year. I'd suspect that you were just lucky enough that you didn't ovulate at any of the times that there were live sperm in the area, or perhaps didn't ovulate at all.

But yes, you could easily do what sarasnee suggested, and ask your doctor about the issue. To remember, I'd suggest linking that question to some question the doctor always asks, like "When was the date of your last period" or something, so you can say, "[date], and oh, by the way..."

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Basically, getting the sperm to the egg is kind of like hitting the lottery. A lot of it is being at the right place, at the right time, under the right circumstances, and even then sometimes it can go a little wrong.

I wouldn't worry about it too much for now. You were on HBC, even if it wasn't perfect, it may have affected your cycle enough to prevent ovulation (for you. This is not true for everyone!) It could also be that you just had sex at the right time, so you were lucky and didn't get pregnant. It's even possible that you DID conceive, but for some reason or another, the egg didn't implant, or miscarried so early that you didn't know it to have happened.

Only start to worry when a. you're over 35 and trying, or b. If you've been trying for more than a year (after coming off of HBC) and have no success.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

I really wouldn't worry that not getting pregnant because of erratic pill taking means you're infertile. While missing pills can decrease the efficacy of hormonal birth control, it's still far from an automatic window to pregnancy.

As oboegoddess mentioned, many perfectly fertile women don't resume ovulating for weeks or months after stopping hormonal birth control -- so for them, missing a few days of pills (especially in the middle of a pack, instead of closer to the placebo week) would not really put them at risk for a breakthrough ovulation and thus, a pregnancy.

I'll put it this way -- during the year I was on the pill, I was far more erratic than you. Significantly more. And while I know my protection was reduced considerably, I never became pregnant. And I also know that I have no reproductive health concerns and am thus almost certainly fertile.

True female infertility is actually very rare. Most infertility is caused by reproductive issues that have other symptoms -- something like poly-cystitic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or endometriosis. If you don't have other reproductive health concerns that would lead to troubles conceiving, it's a fairly safe bet that you are indeed perfectly fertile.