Mistakenly took active pills during placebo week

[lily_maggie]

Dear Scarleteen,

I'm on birth control pills and I was supposed to start taking the 7 placebo pills on last Monday. However I mistakenly took four extra active pills from Monday to Thursday. As soon as I realized the mistake I stopped taking the active pill from Friday until Sunday. Then I resumed taking the active pills by starting a new pack on this Monday (when I was supposed to start a new pack if nothing had gone wrong). I threw away the pack I started wrongly. So in short, I didn't miss any pills but just took in four extra active pills during the placebo period. I had my period from last Friday to this Tuesday. In this case, am I still protected now?

Thanks a lot.

[Heather]

I don't see any reason you'd not still have the full effectiveness of your pill, no.

But just for the record, as an organization, we advise dual contraception -- always also using a second backup method, ideally, condoms, as they also offer STI protection -- for those wanting to prevent pregnancy, since that is the most effective means of prevention.