It is probably better to postpone pregnancy if you have just stopped taking the pill. Women who become pregnant almost immediately afterwards have a slightly higher risk of complications such as preeclampsia and premature births.
It reports that Radboudumc after analyzing seven thousand pregnancies.
About 1,050 women, or 15 percent of the pregnancies in the study, became pregnant within three months of stopping the pill. In this group, the complications occurred one and a half times more often than in women who had stopped taking the pill for some time.
But these are small numbers. For example, preeclampsia occurred in 3 percent of pregnant women who had stopped taking the pill in the past three months. The risk of preterm birth increased to 6 percent.
Still, the figures show that it is probably better to use a different method of contraception in the months before you want to get pregnant, the researchers say.
“But that advice does not apply to everyone,” says gynecologist and co-author Marc Spaanderman. “For example, it may be that you menstruate more heavily by stopping the pill. Ultimately, it remains a personal decision.”
Research shows that the effect differs per contraceptive pill. For example, there are three ‘generations’ of contraceptive pills that all consist of different substances. The first two generations showed a slightly higher risk of preeclampsia, while the third generation had relatively more preterm births.
“But we need to investigate the underlying reasons further to draw conclusions from this,” says lead researcher Marleen van Gelder.
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