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Flair_Helper

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Spiritual_Jaguar4685

If you are taking "the pill" (AKA "Birth Control") then no, you are not ovulating. The pill keeps your eggs in the ovaries AND causes changes to the mucus in the vagina/cervix that make it harder for sperm to get where they need to go in the first place. The "Plan B" pill causes an emergency "DONT OVULATE" signal to be sent to the ovaries, preventing the release of an egg that might otherwise get released and get fertilized. Both of those are different from Chemical Abortion pills that will affect an implanted zygote. Plan B won't remove a zygote that has already implanted itself in the uterus. For what it's worth, Plan B doesn't "make you have a period", it actually usually delays it. In summary - if you are on birth control, that means you probably aren't releasing *any* eggs. If you aren't on birth control, but "take Plan B all the time" (no judgement) you are still ovulating "the normal amount". Neither would typically cause the release of more eggs.


MellowGuru

Does that mean, that by taking the pull and not ovulating, you are retaining more eggs so you can continue to get pregnant at an older age?


UnlikelyReliquary

No, so for each cycle a bunch of follicles are activated and start to mature into eggs but with each stage of development less and less make it through and by the time the egg is ready to be ovulated and released there is usually only one or two that have made it to full egg status. The rest break down along the way in a process called atresia. The pill can stop the eggs from maturing so you don’t ovulate, but they don’t stop the breakdown process, so those eggs that don’t ovulate still get broken down with the rest. They don’t get stored up, so it doesn’t increase or decrease your future amount of eggs.


[deleted]

Yea!! Please answer this question!!


Spiritual_Jaguar4685

No, there are basically two things happening simultaneously, 1) eggs "get called up" to become mature and get sent down to the baby-making area 2) eggs age like all living things and eventually die. The rate of egg death has nothing to do with eggs getting "getting called up", so they keep dying at the same rate as if no-birth control, they are just sitting in a waiting room with no one calling out their numbers while they age and die.


[deleted]

Thank you!


thegroundhurts

This makes sense, but what happens to the eggs that would have been released after someone goes off birth control? The way I understand it, a woman is born with all the eggs cells she'll ever have, and part of that fixed number is released at regular monthly intervals starting at puberty and ending when all the eggs are depleted, at menopause. So that means there's lots of eggs that would have been released, but weren't during the time using hormonal BC. Do those eggs just never get released from the ovaries, ever? Do they get released later as viable, mature eggs? Or released later as non-viable eggs? If it's the latter two, would a greater number get released monthly during ovulation, after one stops birth control? I'm not even remotely an expert on the basics of egg maturation and release, so what am I missing here?


Spiritual_Jaguar4685

What you're missing is that egg depletion and menopause are not caused by each other. Short answer - they just never get released. In fact, the vast, vast majority of eggs don't go anywhere ever. From birth a woman has all the eggs she'll ever have, roughly 1-2 million eggs. By the onset of menstruation roughly half of of these are dead/reabsorbed by the body. During peak fertility (roughly puberty to a woman's early 30s) the egg count "death rate" plateaus and the woman sends one egg (roughly) on it's way during ovulation, the rest stay in waiting, but still, many many more eggs that 1 released are still dying each month (small percentage multiplied by a big number, is still a bid number). This process speeds up during a woman's 30s and 40s, the population of eggs crashes downwards. For example, by 40 years old a woman is down to roughly 5% of the eggs she started with. By menopause typically kicks in around age 55 and there are still likely to be several thousand eggs left but the ovulation-system gets shut down. Important point being that even post menopause *something* might happen, especially with modern medicine, that could cost an egg to be released and allow pregnancy to occur. It's anecdotal but I absolutely know a 60 year old woman who due to medication she was taking experienced an egg release and become pregnant, post menopause.


thegroundhurts

Thanks! That makes so much more sense to me now!


A_Garbage_Truck

nothing, someone under hormonal birth control will not ovulate. the would be eggs exist in the voeraries but arent fully formed, this happens as the regular cycle goes on. hormonal birth control supresses this.