How Your Period Changes After Pregnancy

Your period typically changes after pregnancy. During pregnancy, menstrual bleeding stops for nine months or longer, depending on whether you breastfeed and for how long. You may get your period again about a month postpartum if you don’t breastfeed, though it varies person to person.

If you are breastfeeding consistently, your period may take six months or longer to resume. Your postpartum period may be lighter or heavier than before and may not be on the same schedule.

When your periods resume after giving birth depends on whether you’re breastfeeding.

If You Are Breastfeeding

People who have given birth produce the hormone prolactin, which directs the milk glands to make milk after birth. As long as a person breastfeeds, they’ll continue to make prolactin. High levels of the hormone prevent ovulation. If you don’t ovulate, you don’t get your period.

“[Prolactin] suppresses the pulse-like release in brain hormones that orchestrate ovulation,” John Thoppil, MD, an OB-GYN based in Austin, Texas, told Health. 

You likely won’t get your period if you’re exclusively breastfeeding. Your period will return, on average, between six and nine months postpartum. Breastfeeding can prevent ovulation, so you may use it as a birth control method if you:

• Are fully or nearly fully breastfeeding
• Are less than six months postpartum 
• Are not experiencing menstrual bleeding post-birth

Breastfeeding as a method of birth control, called the lactation amenorrhea method (LAM), carries a 2% risk of pregnancy.

If You Are Not Breastfeeding

If you aren’t breastfeeding, ovulation can happen as early as four weeks postpartum. Ovulation among non-breastfeeding postpartum people can occur as early as 25 days postpartum. Fertile ovulation is likely not to occur until at least 42 days postpartum.

Though many healthcare providers recommend avoiding sex while vagina recovers, if you choose to have sex, consider opting for a form of birth control such as a condom or IUD.

When periods return, they may be quite different from before your pregnancy. Your period—and the symptoms you experience—can improve, stay the same, or even worsen.

Heavier Periods

Some postpartum people will have heavier, longer, or more painful periods than before. A larger uterine cavity after childbirth causes more endometrium, the tissue lining inside the uterus, to shed, said Dr. Thoppil.

Lighter Periods

Some people will have light periods or no periods at all. One of two rare complications may cause that to happen: Sheehan’s syndrome occurs when severe blood loss or low blood pressure damages the pituitary gland, while Asherman’s syndrome results from scar tissue in the uterus lining.

Other Factors

Factors besides pregnancy can change your period. New methods of birth control can affect your flow. You may use a different form of birth control, like an IUD or a birth control pill. Your period may also look different if you do not utilize hormonal birth control.

Periods can change as you age, said Dr. Thoppil, so you may also experience age-related changes.

Getting pregnant before you resume regular menstrual bleeding is possible. “Some women can get pregnant immediately, even with exclusive breastfeeding,” said Dr. Minkin. 

Ovulation occurs before your period, so you may be able to get pregnant prior to your first postpartum period. Talk to a healthcare provider about birth control if you want to avoid another pregnancy.

You may experience a lighter or heavier period flow after pregnancy. Your period may arrive within the first month postpartum if you are not breastfeeding. Breastfeeding individuals may not see their first period for six to nine months.

If you have any questions about how pregnancy may affect your period, reach out to a healthcare provider.