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Contraceptives to Conceive
A Contradictory Success Story
By Kelly Burgess
Perhaps we could find a new name for the birth control pill. After all, although we think of them only as a contraceptive, they're used for a variety of purposes: to ease symptoms of menopause and pre-menstrual syndrome, to regulate unpredictable periods and to control excessive menstrual bleeding. One brand is even touting itself as a weight loss aid! So why not use them to try to conceive a child as well as to prevent one?
Sounds confusing and contradictory, but the fact is that birth control pills are not really birth control pills at all, they are hormone regulators and it's this use that has fertility specialists taking a closer look at how they can help in cases of infertility.
Lisa McCall of Audubon, Penn., recently discovered she was pregnant. She believes that the birth control patch, Ortho Evra, helped her conceive after a miscarriage, a molar pregnancy, a course of Depo Provera and a history of irregular periods.
"My cycles before the patch were all over the place, 38 days one month, 28 the next, etc.," says McCall. "Once I got on the patch, they were 28-day cycles on the nose. I knew when I was supposed to ovulate before I ovulated, because my cycles were regular again."
McCall had decided to use Depo Provera for birth control after her marriage. She had two shots in one year and almost completely stopped having periods – something she hadn't realized would happen. Then, when she and her husband decided to have a child, her cycles were so irregular they weren't able to conceive for nearly a year and a half. When she did finally conceive, she had a molar pregnancy and wonders if the Depo had anything to do with that.
While there's no proof that Depo was responsible, Dr. Philip E. Chenette, of the Pacific Fertility Clinic in San Francisco, Calif., says that they like the Depo to be completely out of a woman's system before she becomes pregnant, and they do recommend a back-up form of contraception during that time. Furthermore, Dr. Lawrence B. Werlin, of the Coastal Fertility Medical Center in Irvine, Calif., says that if a woman is coming to the end of a course of Depo, it may help regulate her cycles to try a course of oral contraceptives.
