Going off the pill at perimenopause? Talk to your doctor.

The greatest number of unplanned pregnancies occur in teenagers. The age group with the second largest number of unplanned pregnancies is…. women in their late 30s and early 40s. This might be less surprising if you understand what is going on at this time.

Why you should not go off birth control pills during perimenopause

From the age of 35 your fertility begins to decline and some women may start to experience perimenopausal symptoms in their late 30s but more commonly in their 40s. As you age the quality of your eggs decreases. This is one of the reasons that congenital abnormalities like Down’s Syndrome are more common in older mothers. Ovulation becomes irregular i.e. some months you ovulate and some months you don’t. (Read more about symptoms of menopause and perimenopause).
Unfortunately there’s no way to know for sure if you’re going to ovulate in any given month and if you’re not consistent with your birth control, effectiveness is greatly reduced.
So if you don’t want to get pregnant you need to continue with whatever birth control method you are currently using until menopause, i.e. when it’s been 1 year since your last period. Stopping your birth control pill before menopause greatly increases your chances of getting pregnant.

Other advantages of not going off oral contraceptives before menopause

Before menopause there is marked fluctuation in the level of sex hormones in the body as ovarian function begins to wind down. One of the benefits of staying on your birth control pill is that it helps to level out your hormone levels so they don’t see-saw up and down as they would otherwise. This means that you will be protected from some perimenopausal symptoms you would have experienced otherwise.

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