Pill may increase fertility, says study

TAKING the Pill for years could increase a woman’s fertility and not reduce it as was suspected, a new study has found.

There have been concerns over the last 20 years that taking the Pill could affect a woman’s ability to conceive.

Some studies reported temporary delays for women who tried to get pregnant after taking the Pill compared to those who had used other forms of contraception.

But new research published yesterday found those who had taken the Pill for a prolonged period were less likely to experience a delay in becoming pregnant.

Researchers at Brunel and Bristol universities in Britain studied more than 8,000 planned pregnancies and found 74% of the women had conceived within six months of first trying for a baby, 14% between six and 12 months and 12% after a year.

The study found that if women had been on the Pill for more than five years, 75.4% conceived within six months.

This was compared with a figure of 70.5% among those who had never used it.

Among the women who conceived within a year of stopping the Pill, 89.9% had been on the Pill for more than five years compared to 85.4% who had never used it. The results were the same for women who had previously had a baby and for those who were pregnant for the first time.

The findings, published in the journal Human Reproduction, were based on women taking part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children at Bristol University.

The pregnant women and their partners completed questionnaires during pregnancy on a variety of topics.

These included their ages, use of the contraceptive Pill, whether they smoked or drank alcohol and how long it had taken to conceive.

Lead author of the report, Dr Alexandra Farrow, of Brunel University, said: “Women who have taken the contraceptive Pill for prolonged periods should be reassured that they will not be disadvantaged.

“It seems that if you take the Pill for a long time, it gives the body some sort of reserve that kicks in when you stop.”

She said previous studies, which reported temporary delays for women who tried to get pregnant after taking the Pill, had not looked at how long they had been on the oral contraceptive.

However, Dr Farrow added that more research was needed to confirm the findings of this latest study.