Scarleteen

Hello,

I have been prescribed antibiotics by my doctor for an ear infection (flucloxaxillin). I’m confused as to whether antibiotics can affect birth control or not. I’m on the contraceptive injection. Do I need to use extra protection? Thanks

Hi 55,

You can find an overview of what things do and do not decrease birth control effectiveness here: Something You Can Worry About Less: Interference and Hormonal Birth Control. Too, generally speaking, when a healthcare provider prescribes you a medication, they'll let you know if it's likely to interfere with other medications or elements of your ongoing healthcare. But you can also call either your healthcare provider or pharmacist and double-check about the interactions between this antibiotic and the shot.

As for whether to use a back-up method, if you're feeling anxious about the effectiveness of your primary method and/or you learn the antibiotics might decrease it, then backing up would be a sound call.

Hi, my doctor said it shouldn’t. But your article says it might?

In that case, I'd go with what your doctor says, since that specific antibiotic isn't mentioned in the article and a healthcare provider who has access to and knowledge of your medical history is going to be able to give you a better sense of whether a certain medication could interact poorly with the shot.

Well your article does mention it in the sense that it’s a broad spectrum antibiotic. The line that concerned me was ‘much of this research has included sample sizes considered too small to detect a rare interaction that may occur in less than 1% of users’. Thanks

Hi. Did speak to Doctor . They said it ‘shouldn’t’ affect it. I don’t think depo injection has many drug interactions but all confusing as patient leaflet for antibiotics says can effect contraceptive pill.

Hi 55,

I agree with Sam that asking your doctor will give you the most accurate advice because it is specific to the contraception you are using specifically and the medication that you are on. Your doctor will also have more experience of history of past patients and their reactions and that knowledge to pull from. There is always risk in every methods but I would not over focus on statistics that are for contraceptives you are not on such as antibiotic reactions to the pill.