Women who decide to go off the pill will not experience any hormonal side effects such as acne, weight gain, mood swings or erratic periods. A woman's period goes back to normal after a few cycles while hormones return to pre-pill levels.
Some women experience an interval of time before their periods get back to normal. "But most women can pretty much count on getting a return to what their periods were like before the pill, rather than getting really bad side effects to going off the pill," Dr. Alyssa Dweck told Huffington Post, who is a practicing OB-GYN and assistant clinical professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
Many women start birth control to regulate issues including acne and heavy periods caused by hormonal imbalance. Getting off the pills will most likely bring those issues back as well.
However, every woman's experience is different based on her body, hormonal balance and the type of pill she was taking. While some women react differently when starting the pill, they will also react differently when stopping the pill.
Some women have reported experiencing unpleasant side effects after stopping birth control pills such as moodiness. Others have reported an increase sex drive due to the rush of extra hormones, according to Med Health.
Meanwhile, Dweck explains that there will not necessarily be an "adjustment period" in fertility when getting off the pill as you can easily become pregnant as soon as you stop taking the pill. Most women will get their period 4-6 weeks after stopping the pill while it will take at least three months before the menstrual cycle will become normal.
While it is possible to get pregnant month after stopping the pill, most people will take a bit longer. For people who were on a high dose of birth control, it is not uncommon to take nearly a year before they are able to conceive.
Some anecdotes that suggest otherwise may be due to age rather than birth control pills. "If someone is on the pill for 10 or 15 years, the very fact that they've aged in that time is going to alter their fertility," Dweck said.
