Endometriosis is a painful disorder that affects women. It occurs when tissues that are similar to those in the lining of the uterus (endometrium) instead grow outside of the uterus. Most often, endometriosis affects the tissues lining the pelvis, the ovaries, and the fallopian tubes.

For normal women, the endometrial-like tissue often thickens, breaks, and bleeds during their menstrual cycle but for women with endometriosis, the tissue gets trapped in them and eventually results in scarring and adhesion.  The result is often pain, which could range from mild to severe, depending on each individual.

There are, however indications that endometriosis could affect fertility. According to research, healthy couples are more likely to get pregnant than those suffering from endometriosis. The reason is that endometriosis affects the ovaries and fallopian tubes, making it challenging for the egg to travel through the fallopian tube, where it is fertilized. There is also a school of thought that endometriosis can damage an egg or sperm but doctors and researchers are still investigating to know why this often happens.

Although endometriosis affects fertility, women can still conceive with the condition. If you have tried in vain to conceive with endometriosis for about six months, then it’s about time you meet a doctor for help. There are a variety of endometriosis treatments that can improve fertility and also help women conceive. Some of such treatment options include;

• In vitro fertilization: This is simply a process where doctors remove eggs from a woman and fertilize it with sperm to form an embryo in the laboratory. After fertilization, the egg is then implanted in the woman. Couples who have challenges getting pregnant as a result of endometriosis could successfully have a baby through this means.
• Egg freezing: This process involves getting eggs from the woman and preserving them in the laboratory. Because endometriosis affects the reproductive organs including the ovarian reserve, it becomes logical to preserve your eggs if you are not ready to get pregnant immediately.
• Superovulation and intrauterine insemination: This procedure is recommended for women with mild endometriosis and whose fallopian tubes are still intact. The process involves placing washed sperms directly into the uterus around the ovulation period.
• Medications: Certain medications such as Clomiphene or progestin injections may also be prescribed to help women with endometriosis conceive. Such medications are specially manufactured to help women produce at least two matured eggs.
• Ultrasound: Above all, women going through fertility issues caused by endometriosis may undergo ultrasounds regularly for doctors to determine when their eggs are matured.

Endometriosis may result in infertility issues but fortunately, there exists medical interventions and procedures to help women with the condition to increase their chances of conceiving.

Birth control pills could help you to avoid pregnancy. However, using these pills would also create some significant changes within your body. When you stop taking birth control pills, these changes could be reversed. As a result, you will experience some adverse side effects. Here’s a list of the common side effects of getting off birth control pills.

Irregular menstrual cycles

One of the common side effects of getting off birth control pills is irregular menstrual cycles. You might experience irregular menstrual cycles for many months after you stop taking birth control pills. This includes long breaks in between your periods and you might even experience a complete stop of your periods. If this happens to you, be prepared to wait for few months before your menstrual cycle starts functioning as normal again.

Your periods will be longer and heavier

Your menstrual cycle after you get off from the birth control pills could be crampier and during this period of time, it is normal to experience heavy bleeding as well. This will no doubt, cause you to feel discomfort and even immense pain during your periods.

Post menopause syndrome

Birth control pills might create hormonal chaos within your body and as a result, there is a high possibility that you might experience depression as well. On top of that, you might suffer from mood swings, causing you to feel irritated and anxious. Without the pills to balance your hormones, you might start feeling moody again.

Mid-month twinges

Another common side effect of getting off birth control pills is experiencing mid-month twinges. Birth control pills work by stopping ovulation and when you stop taking the pills, your body starts to ovulate again. The onset of ovulation might lead to mild cramps on one side of your pelvis and in addition, you might also experience vaginal discharge.

Skin condition deteriorates

Once you get off the birth control pills, the hormones that were once corrected by the pills might be imbalanced, causing the skin to break out and hair to grow in unwanted places.

You might get friskier

 Going off the pills also means you might experience a spike in your libido as the pill causes vaginal dryness. The change in your vaginal discharge and lubrication might cause an increase in libido for some women.

Some of these side effects that you are experiencing might be short term and temporary. Thus, we encourage you to discuss the possible pros and cons of using birth control pills with your doctor.

If you are a healthy couple, you have about a 20 to 25 percent chance of getting pregnant each month. While other factors may affect fertility, you can only get pregnant the natural way if you have ovulated. Ovulation is simply the act of releasing a matured egg from one of your ovaries and it happens every month. A woman can only conceive around her ovulation period because that is when she is most fertile. Most often, ovulation occurs in the middle of the menstrual cycle, notably around the 14^th day of the menstrual cycle for women with an average cycle of 28 days.

A matured egg could be fertilized up to 12 to 24 hours after it has been released. Therefore, to boost your chances of conceiving each month, you need to monitor yourself to determine when exactly you are ovulating. Here are some pointers to watch out for:

1.     Cervical mucus

Most women normally would have stickier cervical mucus. However, during ovulation, the cervical mucus increases and becomes stretchy like raw egg white. Naturally, this makes sex more pleasurable and also makes it possible for the sperms to swim right into the female reproductive system to fertilize a matured egg. If you are looking forward to getting pregnant, you need to observe your cervical mucus and indulge in sex as soon as you notice the egg-white-like type of mucus.

2.     Basal body temperature

Basal body temperature refers to one’s temperature when she is at rest. However, during ovulation, you might experience an increase in basal body temperature even though you are not sick. This happens because, during ovulation, the level of some hormones including progesterone increases, thereby causing body temperatures to rise a little. You, therefore, need to track your body temperature often around your ovulation period.

3.     Breast tenderness

Most women would experience breast tenderness around their ovulation period. Well, the high levels of hormones during ovulation are responsible for this. Hence, if you notice your breasts are tender and somewhat sore in the midway of your menstrual cycle, know it’s a good time for you to indulge in unprotected sex.

4.     Ovulation pain

Some women experience random sharp pains in their lower abdomen during their ovulation period. While this pain may be severe and sharp for some women, others describe it as mild and temporal. Research has however revealed that most mid-cycle pains occur just before ovulation, so you need to watch out for that.

All these signs would not necessarily pinpoint your exact ovulation date but to boost your chances of getting pregnant, you need to have sex regularly during your fertile window.