Question about BC

[Jellowl]

There is one thing I do not quite understand about BC. I am on BC and I take it at the same time every night; never missed a dose. I don't understand how if you miss one active pill, your chances of becoming pregnant rise, yet if you're on your sugar pill week (having your period and all that jazz) you are still protected since you've been taking the pills correctly. How does this work? Wouldn't you have a higher chance of becoming pregnant when you are not taking the active pills?

[Heather]

The way oral contraceptives primarily work is by suppressing ovulation, and they do that by changing the way a whole fertility cycle works. If pills aren't taken properly -- including missing active pills (not placebos) -- that can basically change things so your body just goes back to its fertility cycle as it is.

The placebo period of pills is designed in such a way that it effectively mimics the week-ish in a fertility cycle that would be the menstrual week. While someone could potentially become pregnant from intercourse during that week, that could only happen if they ovulated right afterward. But, someone using the pill properly won't do that because they will not ovulate in their next cycle of pills.

It might help to go ahead and give yourself a better understanding of fertility cycles if this still doesn't make sense: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/bodie ... nstruation. Your pills, so long as they are taken as directed, effectively keep you in the secretory phase of the cycle, which is a time in the cycle where nothing, including ovum being present or soon available, is as it needs to be for egg fertilization to occur.