digestive issues and the pill.

[kirei]

Hey everyone! Sorry to post here, but I've called several professionals, researched this site, and I've gotten varying answers... so I'm posting here in an effort to get some clear answers.

So, I'm currently on a triphasic pill, and have been for two years. I'm usually a strict pill taker, but on the second week, I ended up having some stomach issues and had diarrhea three times that day, one of which happened an hour after I took my pill. I called my pharmacist after it happened, and he told me not to worry about it since diarrhea didn't effect the birth control pill, especially since I took my pill on an empty stomach and it didn't continue over two+ days. My pharmacist told me it took 30 minutes for a pill to absorb into the blood stream on empty. I called my nurse, and she said the same thing and not to worry about it. I had sex, and took eight days of active pills until my placebo week, and I got a full withdrawal bleed (but had breakthrough bleeding a week leading up to my placebo week).

After I did some research, I found resources that told me that since I had diarrhea an hour after I took my pill, my protection was indeed compromised. I'm assuming that since I got my withdrawal bleed, any risks I had were negated after I got my period...but my question is, what about my first week of active pills? I did some research on this site that said I'd be protected as long as I started my active pill ontime after my withdrawal bleed, then another resource that said I should back up. A nurse told me that as long as I had eight active pills prior to my placebo week, I was protected. I did have sex during my first week of active pills, but we used withdrawal as well.

My questions are...

- Was my protection compromised in the first place?
- Withdrawal bleed = risks during cycle are now negated?
- Took eight active pills before placebo week after the incident. Should I still have backed up during the first week?

Thanks!!

[Ashleah]

Hi Kirei,

Is there a reason you do not feel confident in the information you got from your pharmacist and nurse? I think you can and should trust what you have been told by medical professionals!!! They have given you information for you and your situation where as anything you have looked up on the internet is more general. In fact, if you had started here we would have advised you to contact your pharmacist for questions about your medication and effectiveness!

Having a withdrawal bleed is a sign that a pregnancy did not occur.

In the future, I would advise that you use a back up method anytime that you don't feel comfortable with your methods level of protection or feel that the effectiveness has been compromised.

[kirei]

Hi! I do, but there's just so much conflicting information out there that I want to make sure I'm rock solid in terms of protection. We just recently started ditching the condoms, but we make sure to withdraw perfectly each time. Even so, it can make me a little nervous. So when there's possible slip ups, like this one, I tend to go a little overkill with my research.

[Heather]

So, sounds like you might be getting a cue from your head that you'd feel better keeping up with the condoms, no?

Really, they're a better way to go as a backup method than withdrawal in the first place (they're more effective, especially in typical use), offer needed STI protection if you and yours haven't both been exclusive for at least six months and both had a recent round of tests with negative results, and they're certainly much harder to mess up with than withdrawal.