Heat and birth control pills

[FadedPassion]

Hello!

I'm on the combination pill Tri-cyclen. I store my next month's pills in a drawer in my bedroom. A couple weeks ago we had a bit of a heat wave come through and we didn't put on the air conditioning because it only lasted a couple days. The house got quite hot. When I came home at night the temperature said it was approximately 33-36 degrees Celsius. My pills say to store them from 15-30 degrees Celsius. The pills look normal even though I didn't check them when we had tests hot weather, I checked them 2 weeks later. It got me thinking, would that heat have effected those pills?

[Alice O]

Hey FadedPassion,

While it does sound like your birth control pills were outside of their ideal temperature range, it's important to note that they were in the drawer, not say, on the windowsill in direct sunlight for the entirety of a heat wave. The drawer would have blocked direct sunlight from reaching the pills for an extended period of time, and the temperature in the drawer might have been cooler. It's also a good sign you didn't notice that the blisters on the pack were cloudy or distended. To be certain though, you should check with a pharmacist.

You can also use a back-up method of birth control until you get an answer from the pharmacist. Do you already use a back-up method of birth control? Since you have had some anxiety around the effectiveness of your pills before, that could be a helpful thing. What do you think?

[FadedPassion]

Okay thank you. Yeah we currently just use the pull out method but I want to start incorporating condoms.
I called the pharmacist earlier and there answer seemed a bit vague. She said that there's usually an overlap period which is fine. So like if I'm supposed to store mine at 15-30 degrees she said 10 degrees warmer should be fine. And if they were in a car then they probably wouldn't be okay. I called another one to see their opinion and he said it would effect it if they were in that type of temperature for a long time such as 1 or 2 months straight. They both said to see if there's signs of melting or condensation. To me they look like normal pills. However this hot weather was like over 2 weeks ago so I don't know if they would still look different if they were effected. I figured I would ask on here because you all seem very helpful and knowledgeable.

[Alice O]

From what the pharmacists said, it sounds like the pills are fine--since the pills were not in a temperature FAR outside of the ideal range, and since they were not in a the heat for a long-period of time, and since they weren't in a space like a car.

But I think your instinct to start incorporating condoms is a great one. Both while you take the birth control pills that were in the heat, but also maybe longer-term. How do you feel about next steps for getting ahold of condoms and using them?