Should I Wait to Get Pregnant After Taking Vacations? A Parent’s Practical Perspective
The damp cotton of my 3-year-old’s play shorts is still cool from the clothesline when I set them in the basket, and my phone buzzes from the porch rail beside my half-drunk iced tea. It’s a text from my best friend Lila: “Just got home from Portugal and I can’t stop overthinking. Me and Jake want to start trying for a baby, everyone’s saying I should wait a few months after back-to-back vacations. Should I?”
I smiled, because I asked that exact question five years ago. My husband and I crammed a 10-day cross-country road trip and a 7-day Caribbean cruise into two months, right after we got engaged and decided we wanted to start our family sooner rather than later. Everyone had a strong opinion: my OB nurse cousin said jet lag would throw my cycle off so bad I’d waste months trying, my mom said I should wait to “get my body back” after all the vacation drinking and bad food, my coworker who’d struggled with fertility said don’t you dare wait a single month if you’re ready. I was so confused I showed up to my annual OB appointment with a list of questions scribbled on a grocery receipt.
What my doctor told me that day has stuck with me, and it’s what I always tell people who ask this question now. First, we separate the real medical concerns from the noise. If you got any live vaccines for your trip (think yellow fever, some formulations of typhoid), your doctor will give you a specific waiting period, and that’s non-negotiable—follow that advice exactly. If you had a bad case of traveler’s diarrhea that required heavy antibiotics, or you picked up any other travel-related illness that needed prescription medication, check how long you need to wait after stopping those drugs before conceiving. But if you just did a couple of trips, ate more fried food than usual, drank more wine than you do at home, and got a little jet lag? None of that does any long-term damage to your fertility or a potential early embryo. The idea that you need to “cleanse” your body after vacation before conceiving is just hype.
Most people asking this question aren’t actually worried about the medical stuff anyway, my doctor said. They’re worried about the life stuff, and that’s what actually matters. I admitted I was completely drained after two back-to-back trips. I’d slept on a deflating air mattress for 10 days of camping, drove 30 hours total, ate nothing but gas station snacks and cruise ship buffets, and I couldn’t remember the last time I got 8 hours of sleep. If I started trying that month, any late period would have me panicking that the trip messed something up, any negative test would have me blaming my choice to not wait. I didn’t have the emotional energy to handle the ups and downs of trying to conceive that month. She said that’s a perfectly good reason to wait, even if there’s no medical reason to do it.
I ended up waiting one cycle. I spent that month unpacking, going to bed at 9pm, eating home-cooked vegetables, and getting my routine back. I got pregnant the very next cycle. If I had started right away, I probably would have gotten pregnant then too, but I would have spent those early weeks exhausted and stressed over every little twinge, and that’s not how I wanted to start my journey as a parent.
That experience taught me there are three concrete questions you can ask yourself to figure out what’s right for you, no generic answer required. First, confirm with your doctor if you have any mandatory waiting period based on vaccines or medication from your trip. If yes, wait that exact amount of time, no arguments. Second, be honest about how you feel right now: are you so drained from travel that a negative pregnancy test this month would hit you harder than you can handle? If you’re already running on fumes, wait a month to get your energy back. Third, do you already have another big trip booked that you’ve spent thousands of dollars and years planning, and getting pregnant now would mean you can’t do the things you’re most excited for? It’s okay to wait until after that trip to start. There’s no unwritten rule that says you have to start trying the second you decide you want a baby.
On the flip side, if none of those apply, don’t wait just because a stranger on the internet said you should. I have a friend who got pregnant on her honeymoon, after 18 months of trying to conceive. She didn’t wait, she has a perfectly healthy 5-year-old now. If you’re ready to start, you don’t have any medical red flags, and you’re not too drained to handle the ups and downs of trying, there’s no reason to put it off. Waiting when you’re eager to start just adds unnecessary stress too.
After I put my son down for his nap, I texted Lila all of this. I reminded her she’s had a trip to Japan booked for next spring, planned since we were 22 and studied abroad together, when we promised we’d go back to hike the Japanese Alps together. If she starts trying now, she’ll be 7 months pregnant when the trip comes, and she’ll spend the whole time worrying about whether she can handle 10 days of walking and camping. She texted me back this morning, said she already wanted to wait until after Japan, but she felt guilty for putting it off, like she was being silly for prioritizing a vacation over a baby. I told her she wasn’t being silly.
A dirt-stained hand just waved at me from the yard, my son holding a jar full of rolly pollies he caught. I still think about that trip to Japan my husband and I never took, the one we put off when we decided to start trying when we did. Some days I wish we’d waited another year, gone, and had our baby after. Some days I can’t imagine my life without my son here, running around our yard getting dirty. There’s no perfect choice, no rule that fits everyone. The right answer is whatever makes you feel less stressed, right now. That’s all it ever is.
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