When to Stop Birth Control to Get Pregnant

Deciding when to stop contraception is one of the first practical choices when you plan a pregnancy. For most methods, the answer is simple: stop when you are ready to try, because fertility comes back fast. The injection is the one method worth planning around months ahead.

When should you stop birth control?

For the pill, ring, patch, IUDs and implants, you can stop when you are ready to start trying.¹² Do two things first: start 400 mcg of folic acid at least a month before you could conceive,⁵ and have a prepregnancy checkup, which ACOG says is appropriate while you are still using contraception.⁶

If you use the Depo-Provera injection, consider switching to another method or stopping injections well before you want to conceive, because the return of fertility is slower.³

How fast does fertility come back?

Quickly for most people. A 2018 meta-analysis of 22 studies with 14,884 women found that 83.1% were pregnant within 12 months of stopping contraception, with no significant difference between hormonal methods and IUDs.¹ Neither the type of progestin nor the length of pill use changed that.¹

A large 2020 cohort of people trying to conceive in North America and Denmark measured the delay more precisely, compared with people who had used barrier methods.² About 38% of its participants had recently used oral contraceptives, 13% long-acting reversible methods such as IUDs and implants, and 31% barrier methods.² It found short-term delays after some hormonal methods, and the longest after injections:

“Back to normal” means that by then, fecundability had caught up with that of former barrier users.²

The Depo-Provera shot: plan ahead

The FDA-approved label states that, for women who conceive after stopping, the median time to conception is 10 months after the last injection, with a range of 4 to 31 months, and that the delay is unrelated to how long the injection was used.³ Of those who conceived, 68% did so within 12 months, 83% within 15 months and 93% within 18 months of the last injection.³

In the 2020 cohort, injectable users had lower fecundability than barrier users (fecundability ratio 0.65) and took five to eight cycles to return to normal fertility.²

Hormonal vs copper IUD

It makes little difference which IUD you had. In the 2020 cohort, both hormonal and copper IUD users were back to normal fertility after about two cycles.² The meta-analysis likewise found no significant difference between IUD types in how quickly pregnancy followed removal, with 84.8% of former IUD users pregnant within a year.¹

Does long-term birth control affect fertility?

No. In the 2020 cohort, the lifetime length of hormonal contraceptive use was not associated with fecundability, suggesting little or no lasting effect.² The meta-analysis also found that how long people had used the pill did not influence return of fertility.¹

Is it safe to conceive right after stopping?

Generally, yes. The Depo-Provera label notes that epidemiologic studies and meta-analyses have not found an increased risk of birth defects after exposure to progestins before conception or during early pregnancy.³ A 2023 cohort study found that recent use of the pill, hormonal or copper IUDs, the ring or the implant before conception was not associated with miscarriage, compared with barrier methods.⁴ Recent patch and injection users had somewhat higher miscarriage rates (incidence rate ratios 1.34 and 1.44), but the numbers were small, the confidence intervals included no difference, and the authors could not rule out other explanations.⁴

What to expect from your cycles

Tracking helps you see when your cycles settle: an ovulation calculator or LH tests show when your fertile window opens, and our fertile window guide explains the timing. If your cycles stay irregular, a tracker designed for that can help.

A simple timeline for stopping

When to see a doctor

ASRM recommends a fertility evaluation after 12 months of trying, or after 6 months if you are 35 or older, and earlier evaluation when your history justifies it.⁷ Absent or very irregular periods after stopping contraception are a reason to go sooner; our guide to irregular periods explains the common causes. If you stopped the injection, mention it, since the label describes a median of 10 months to conception after the last dose.³

For how long conception usually takes once fertility is back, see how long it takes to get pregnant, then work through the preconception checklist. More in the Prepare hub.