Birth control effectiveness

[Veronica]

I started taking birth control (desogestrel) a little over 3 weeks ago (I never missed a day, always took it at the right time). The doctor told me to wait 2 months to have sex without a condom. 3 days ago I had sex with a condom but it got lost inside me and it only came out 2 days later. He didn't ejaculate, but I'm scared there might have been precum on the condom. I'm freaking out.
So I read my BC leaflet and it says that you only need a condom during the first 7 days. Now I'm really confused: when does the BC start being effective? How long do you have to wait until you're safe? Am I safe already?

[Redskies]

Welcome to the boards!

It depends when in your cycle you started taking the pill.

If you started taking it on the day you started your period, or within the next 7 days: you likely had your pill's full coverage after 1 week of taking it. However, we do still recommend backing up for the first full month, just to be sure, and to give people breathing room to make mistakes with their pill-taking while it's still new.

If you started taking the pill at any other point in your cycle, you need to back up for the first month.

Your doctor likely advised 2 months because it's very common indeed for people to make mistakes with their pill-taking in the early days, and with mistakes, they probably won't have their pill's full contraceptive protection. It's very common that people ditch condoms the immediate they start the pill and then have a scare in the first couple of months, so your doctor was likely being a good healthcare provider and trying to avoid that for you.

As you've been taking your pill correctly for 3 weeks, taking EC at this point wouldn't give you anything extra on top of that, so there's nothing further for you to do about this right now.

Do you need any refreshers about condom usage? Sometimes they can come off if it's not held on the penis while the penis is withdrawn. (Also, for the future, while having a condom hanging out in your vagina for a couple of days isn't likely to do you any real harm, it's not the greatest for your health, as it might encourage an imbalance or stray bacteria that don't belong there! In the future, if something gets stuck, if you can manage to get it out with your fingers, that's better.)