diff --git a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
index 5d9636d4fa..9f8315a410 100644
--- a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ For notes on migrating to 2.x / 0.200.x see [the upgrade guide](doc/upgrade-to-2
 
 * fix(instrumentation-fetch): preserve init overrides when input is a Request object [#6421](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/issues/6421) @akandic47
 * fix(otlp-exporter-base): limit Node.js HTTP transport response body to 4 MiB [#6552](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/6552) @kartikgola
+* fix(instrumentation-fetch): avoid unwrapping fetch API when disabling [#6575](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/6575) @david-luna
 * fix(web-common): add check for possible unsafe json parse [#6589](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/6589) @maryliag
 
 ### :books: Documentation
diff --git a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/src/fetch.ts b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/src/fetch.ts
index 3d7eb7cb6a..d5eb4a568d 100644
--- a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/src/fetch.ts
+++ b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/src/fetch.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ import type { InstrumentationConfig } from '@opentelemetry/instrumentation';
 import {
   SemconvStability,
   semconvStabilityFromStr,
-  isWrapped,
   InstrumentationBase,
   safeExecuteInTheMiddle,
 } from '@opentelemetry/instrumentation';
@@ -111,6 +110,15 @@ export class FetchInstrumentation extends InstrumentationBase<FetchInstrumentati
 
   private _semconvStability: SemconvStability;
 
+  // Note: Intentionally *not* using `_enabled` as the field name to avoid
+  // any possible confusion with the `_enabled` field used on the *Node.js*
+  // InstrumentationBase class.
+  // Also not initializing the fields to `false` because the base class
+  // constructor already call `enable` modifying their values and it will
+  // set the instrumentaitons in a bas state (enabled, patched but with flags set to false)
+  declare private _isEnabled: boolean;
+  declare private _isFetchPatched: boolean;
+
   constructor(config: FetchInstrumentationConfig = {}) {
     super('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-fetch', VERSION, config);
     this._semconvStability = semconvStabilityFromStr(
@@ -382,6 +390,9 @@ export class FetchInstrumentation extends InstrumentationBase<FetchInstrumentati
         this: typeof globalThis,
         ...args: Parameters<typeof fetch>
       ): Promise<Response> {
+        if (!plugin._isEnabled) {
+          return original.apply(this, args);
+        }
         const self = this;
         const url = web.parseUrl(
           args[0] instanceof Request ? args[0].url : String(args[0])
@@ -611,21 +622,31 @@ export class FetchInstrumentation extends InstrumentationBase<FetchInstrumentati
       );
       return;
     }
-    if (isWrapped(fetch)) {
-      this._unwrap(globalThis, 'fetch');
-      this._diag.debug('removing previous patch for constructor');
+
+    if (this._isEnabled) {
+      return;
+    }
+    this._isEnabled = true;
+
+    if (this._isFetchPatched) {
+      this._diag.debug('fetch constructor already patched');
+      return;
     }
+    this._isFetchPatched = true;
     this._wrap(globalThis, 'fetch', this._patchConstructor());
   }
 
   /**
-   * implements unpatch function
+   * deactivates fetch instrumentation
    */
   override disable(): void {
     if (!hasBrowserPerformanceAPI) {
       return;
     }
-    this._unwrap(globalThis, 'fetch');
+    if (!this._isEnabled) {
+      return;
+    }
+    this._isEnabled = false;
     this._usedResources = new WeakSet<PerformanceResourceTiming>();
   }
 }
diff --git a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/test/fetch.test.ts b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/test/fetch.test.ts
index 47d622265a..8a6cbcf783 100644
--- a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/test/fetch.test.ts
+++ b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-fetch/test/fetch.test.ts
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ function waitFor(timeout: number): Promise<void> {
 }
 
 describe('fetch', () => {
+  const originalFetch = globalThis.fetch;
   let workerStarted = false;
 
   const startWorker = async (
@@ -202,15 +203,18 @@ describe('fetch', () => {
       );
     } finally {
       sinon.restore();
+      globalThis.fetch = originalFetch;
     }
   });
 
   describe('enabling/disabling', () => {
+    // const originalFetch = globalThis.fetch;
     let fetchInstrumentation: FetchInstrumentation | undefined;
 
     afterEach(() => {
       fetchInstrumentation?.disable();
       fetchInstrumentation = undefined;
+      // globalThis.fetch = originalFetch;
     });
 
     it('should wrap global fetch when instantiated', () => {
@@ -227,11 +231,11 @@ describe('fetch', () => {
       assert.ok(isWrapped(window.fetch));
     });
 
-    it('should unwrap global fetch when disabled', () => {
+    it('should not unwrap global fetch when disabled', () => {
       fetchInstrumentation = new FetchInstrumentation();
       assert.ok(isWrapped(window.fetch));
       fetchInstrumentation.disable();
-      assert.ok(!isWrapped(window.fetch));
+      assert.ok(isWrapped(window.fetch));
 
       // Avoids ERROR in the logs when calling `disable()` again during cleanup
       fetchInstrumentation = undefined;