"It's not dangerous not to have your period while on the pill," she says. Missing a period while on the pill doesn't indicate anything abnormal, Cullins said, as long as you have been taking the pill consistently and correctly each day. 4) Missing a period on the pill doesn't mean something's wrong
"Two or three missed pills is when you need to begin to get concerned, and once you get to three missed pills, you need to consider emergency contraception and using backup birth control until she has finished the first week of the pills of the new package that is begun after her bleed from emergency contraception," Cullins said.
#IF YOU TAKE BIRTH CONTROL 2 HOURS LATE HOW TO#
This chart with data from Planned Parenthood shows the organization's recommendations for how to handle a missed combination pill. Women who miss one day of their pill can take two pills the next day without reducing their birth control's effectiveness.
"That's acceptable," she said.įor combination progestin-estrogen pills, the space is even wider. A three-hour difference is not enough to lower the pill's efficacy. Cullins said that for those taking progestin-only pills, "on time" means taking the pill within the same three-hour window daily. For instance, i f a birth control user typically takes a pill at 9 am but one morning waits until 11 am, is she at greater risk for pregnancy? I asked Cullins whether there is wiggle room in terms of when birth control is effective. 3) There's a three-hour window for taking your birth control pill "on time" The main difference: Pills have to be taken every day, which leaves more room for human error. It's true with any prescription medication."īirth control pills have a higher failure rate than other contraceptives, like intra-uterine devices (IUDs) or birth control rings. This isn't just true with birth control pills. But typically the chance is much higher than that, because people miss pills. "If you take these pills every single day, the chances of getting pregnant is 1 percent. "It's hard to actually when you're living a busy life," Cullins says. That means nine of every 100 women using birth control pills as their only means of contraception become pregnant in any given year. In real life, birth control pills have a 9 percent failure rate. If women follow the exact instructions for taking birth control pills - every day, at the same time - they prevent pregnancy in 99 percent of all cases. "When you're pregnant, you don't ovulate, and the cervical mucus is thickening to prevent anything from easily getting into your uterus." 2) Lots of women take birth control incorrectly
Vanessa Cullins, Planned Parenthood's vice president of external medical affairs. "There is some truth to the idea that birth control pills trick your body into thinking you're pregnant," said Dr. In a way, birth control mimics the body's response to pregnancy. All of them work by doing two things: They prevent women from ovulating, and they cause the cervical mucus to thicken, which makes it more difficult for a sperm to penetrate and make contact with an egg if the woman is ovulating. Others contain two hormones, progestin and estrogen.
1) Birth control pills prevent pregnancy through two different mechanismsĪll birth control pills use hormones to prevent pregnancy.
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