Scarleteen

Hi,

I recently took a trip where I accidentally left my birth control pills in the trunk of my car for about 4 hours and the high for the day was about 90 degrees, so it got pretty hot in the car. I continued taking my pills as normal until I was told by a friend to call my doctor to see if the pills might be less effective since they were exposed to high temperatures. I'm currently on the placebo pills and have been taking the potentially damaged pills since Sunday August 8th. I got new pills for the next 3 months though, as advised by my doctor. I'm just wondering, would the pills just be less effective or completely ineffective if they were damaged by heat (in other words, how much was my risk of pregnancy increased by during that week I was taking the pills)? Also, is it okay that I've been taking them or is there a health risk associated with taking damaged pills?

Thank you!

It is possible that your pills were damaged by the heat, especially since the interior temperature of a car can get much hotter than the outside temperature, but there isn't a way to know how much their effectiveness might have been impacted. I doubt that the heat would make them completely ineffective, though, especially after just a few hours.
It's unlikely that there would be a health risk involved in taking the pills if they were compromised; it might make them less effective but wouldn't be likely to cause any other problems or be dangerous to take.
Since you have new pills now, it sounds like you're all set moving forward, which is great. If you're currently sexually active, you may want to use condoms as well, if you aren't already, for the next month or two; they can act as a backup method in case there was any change in your pill's effectiveness for that last week.

I didn't know heat can lessen the effectivity of drugs.Thanks for this post! Since this has been a month, I'm sure you've been out of risk of getting pregnant.