We know that the birth control pill pauses ovulation, right? So, does that then mean that your eggs get saved up? Could this delay menopause? This is a great question from our community, and we got our chief medical advisor, Dr. Dan Nayot, to break it all down.
Does birth control affect how many eggs you have?
As you may already know, females are born with all the primordial follicles (think of these as precursors to eggs) that they'll ever have. In fact, the number of primordial follicles peaks at 20 weeks of gestation—when you're still in utero. (Crazy, right?!) This is different from males, who are always producing sperm (though sperm quality does decrease with age).
Is It True You're More Fertile Right After Coming Off The Pill? →
What happens to your eggs when you're on the pill?
Taking birth control pills prevents ovulation, which means no egg gets released to meet sperm. Once puberty hits, people with eggs start having ovulatory cycles. Think of it like a wave. Each cycle, hundreds to thousands of primordial follicles are activated, and only a fraction of them make it through to the next stage of development. Only one will make it to "mature egg" status and be ovulated. The ones that break down along the way go through what's called "atresia." If you're taking the pill, you'll stop that mature egg from developing, but it doesn't stop the waves of atresia. So, taking birth control medication won't prolong your fertility, and it won't push back menopause.
It's a common thought—if the pill stops ovulation, maybe it's saving eggs for later, but that's not how it works.
Each month, only one egg (sometimes two) makes it to maturity. Meanwhile, hundreds of other eggs break down and are flushed out of the body. Birth control doesn't stop that process—it just keeps the mature egg from developing in the first place, which prevents the chance of fertilization.
Does IVF use up your eggs?
And if you're wondering if fertility treatments or ovarian stimulation medications use up more of your eggs, you can apply the same logic but in reverse: Fertility drugs help recruit more mature eggs from the wave of atresia. You're not decreasing your future eggs because these follicles would've gone through atresia anyway.
Birth control vs. egg freezing: What actually preserves fertility?
Birth control doesn't preserve fertility—but egg freezing does. Egg freezing is a medical process where mature eggs are retrieved and cryogenically frozen until you're ready to use them. (Think of it like becoming your own future egg donor.) To get there, you'll take hormone injections for a few weeks so your ovaries mature multiple eggs at once. When the eggs reach the right phase of maturity, you go through the egg retrieval process.
Once frozen, those eggs stay the same as when they were collected, meaning there's no expiration date on how long they can be preserved. You can use them at any time in the future.
Freezing Your Eggs: The Process, Costs and More →
Though you can’t impact the quantity of eggs you have, you can improve their quality by starting a top-notch prenatal vitamin at least three months before you try to conceive. Take our easy quiz to find the right personalized supplement for you.
