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A: The birth control pills act by suppressing stimulation of the ovaries to ovulate, and this suppression happens at the Pituitary and Hypothalamus level. Therefore it's a central inhibition, and this suppression takes varying amounts of time, depending on the individual, to disappear. With the newer low-dosage pills, the suppression often happens immediately, but can take as long as two years in the very rare individual. Yes, you should ovulate before you have a period; but since a period happens two weeks after ovulation, the bleeding you may start experiencing now will be "dysfunctional"-a temporary condition. It is possible to conceive before your next period, but if the resumption of your cycles is delayed for a long time, you can have "dysfunctional" or "endometrial exhaustion" bleeding too, a sign of a dysfunctional cycle that can often be misinterpreted as a period. This irregular bleeding can start happening very soon. I would just let things ride and wait for your cycles to resume normally. If you go more than three months without a cycle establishing itself, I would get your doctor involved. If you're late on a period and your pregnancy test is negative, it's just that this suppression hasn't resolved yet and things are still in the dysfunctional phase. However, if the dysfunctional phase lasts for a very long time, it may not be a "post-pill" phenomenon at all, but a reflection of an actual condition which may have been masked by the ten-year hormonal override of the pill-a treatable condition.