IUD Removal

[lad]

Hi Atomic!

I know that you've mentioned in the past that it's best to stop the birth control pill/remove your IUD immediately before TTC for a girl sway. This was initially my plan--to wait until December and then get it removed two weeks before we want to TTC.

However, I was recently talking to my husband and realized that I haven't had a normal menstrual cycle since I was 16! Not because I have irregular cycles or anything, but because I was on a birth control pill that stopped my period until I turned 26, then went off of it, got pregnant within two weeks, had a missed miscarriage, ended up needing a D&C, and then conceived my son two weeks after that procedure. Then, of course, I was pregnant, so I wasn't having a cycle. And my doctor had me come in four weeks after giving birth to put in my hormonal IUD, so I didn't have a cycle post birth, either.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I realized that I would really, really like to give my body the opportunity to have a few normal cycles before we TTC again. I actually miss having my period! And I'd love to get an idea of what my hormones are doing and how regular my ovulation is.

That brings me to my question -- what is the evidence/reasoning behind having people wait until right before TTC to stop BC to sway girl? How strongly does it seem to sway, and what trends have you seen in the past? If it's not a super strong sway (or even just more based on theory than any real evidence), I think I will probably opt to have it removed this month, and then we'll used condoms until we TTC in December.

As always, thank you SO MUCH for your time and kindness! You're a swaying saint!

[atomic sagebrush]

But you aren't going to be able to tell any of those things. The most likely scenario is that your period will NOT be regular and you won't be able to tell anything about your natural cycle. I feel like you'll be missing out on the potential sway without gaining what you hope to gain - more knowledge about your cycle.

It's always your call to make, I just don't see any benefit to this. It is based more on theory but then again ALL this stuff is based more on theory than evidence.

I can't give you any hard data though because the people who CAN get pregnant easily that month coming off the birth control are NOT the average group of people. they are likely more fertile and have an easier time "shaking off" the effects of the birth control. So I can't use that group to really draw any conclusions from.

[lad]

Thanks for the reply, Atomic! It isn’t even so much that I want to learn about my cycle.... I just really miss getting my period! (Again, I know it’s totally silly, but the idea of jumping right into a pregnancy without being able to get my period makes me kind of sad).

Out of curiosity, I did look up a few studies just to see what the literature said—I’m a science communications person, and a huge geek about primary literature :). Neither study was stellar (one had a huge sample size but was really old, the other had a smaller sample size), but both actually showed that pregnancy the first month or two after removal of an IUD or cessation of oral birth control swayed blue! I was pretty surprised. It could totally just be that people who are very fertile get pregnant more quickly post removal of birth control, but who knows! I’ll link to the studies below, just in case you’re interested! I’d be super interested to know what you think!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3213675/

https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(16)46097-8/pdf

[atomic sagebrush]

That doesn't mean what you think it means though. Many people cannot get pregnant that first month coming off the birth control. Many don't even have a cycle for a while. Many don't even TRY to get pregnant, preferring to let the BCP get out of their body totally. And for others, it's simply the case (like you mention) that those who get pregnant more quickly are more "set" for blue to start with. So right away, the group of people selected for getting pregnant are NOT randomly selected (and one of the studies even mentions that possibility too).

It is entirely possible that things can both sway pink to some extent and yet still because they're used by people who may be more blue friendly, that this is something you can't observe in a study. if the people you select in your study are somehow preselected in some natural, uncontrollable way for blue to start with, say they're coming in 80% "set" for blue (I'm just using made up numbers to illustrate) even if they did something that swayed a whopping 20%, they'd still end up having 60% boys. So we have to take care not to look at anything and think "well, any time the ratio varies this means Factor Y sways blue" because that really may not be the case.

What seems to be swaying pink is a gentle suppression of fertility that comes from diet, exercise, losing weight, breastfeeding, etc and coming off the BCP mimics that. So while I cannot yet prove it, I still maintain that while only theoretical, there's reason to believe the BCP sways pink.

But hey, if you want to have a period first, by all means!! Go for it! I just want you to understand why I think it is that the hormonal birth control methods do sway pink. :)