Hello, I hope I can help you today. The common medications which are used to lower cholesterol, called statins, are not safe to use during pregnancy. For one, cholesterol levels actually normally rise during pregnancy, because cholesterol is used to make a lot of the hormones and developing tissues, such as the brain, in the fetus. For that reason, many medical professionals do not recommend any woman of reproductive age to start using cholesterol-lowering medication. The other reason is that the chance at your age of your actually having a heart attack or stroke just from high cholesterol is still extremely low. At your age, the likelihood of your having problems conceiving are relatively low and the best way to have a healthy pregnancy is to be healthy before you get pregnant. So I recommend following your doctor s instructions regarding cholesterol-lowering medication, and delaying pregnancy until your cholesterol is under better control. In addition to medications there may be diet and exercise recommendations that your doctor may have which will put you in a better state of health then you are right now. So in summary, high cholesterol does not affect the fetus in any negative way, and the body actually makes more cholesterol during pregnancy to provide the fetus with nutrition. However cholesterol-lowering medication can actually harm the fetus by decreasing cholesterol levels to the point where the proper development of the fetus could be compromised. So in order to both keep the baby safe as well as improve your health I would recommend delaying pregnancy until after you ve worked with your primary physician in order to lower your cholesterol and get your body into a healthier state to prepare for pregnancy. You should be off cholesterol-lowering medication at the time you are trying to conceive. In the long run, missing high cholesterol medication for about a year especially at your young age and if you do not have any other cardiac risk factors, will not do harm to you. I hope I was able to adequately answer your question today, and that my advice was helpful. Best wishes, Dr. Brown