Scarleteen

Dear Scarleteen,
I have been very comfortable with using the dual protection of condoms and taking birth control pills but today very early on into sex the condom broke. My fiance had not ejaculated and pulled out as soon as he felt it happen (the hole was also on the side not the tip). Today was my last day of placebo pills and I am starting a new pill pack tomorrow. I have taken all of my active pills on time. I only missed one placebo pill which I threw away so I remembered what day of the pack I was on but all of the active pills in week 1-3 I took on time as always. Should I take the emergency contraception pill too in this case? Or will it even add anything to perfect pill usage in this case? Thank you so much!!

Even though the condom broke, your partner did pull out before he ejaculated, so you still used two methods of contraception: the pill and withdrawal. EC wouldn't add anything to your level of protection in this case.

Thanks so much for the information! Just to clarify, I read you guys' Buddy System article about doubling up with 2 methods and for the pill prefect use and withdrawal, the combination was like 99.98 percent chance. Does this place us in the very low pregnancy risk category?

Yep!

I'm so so sorry I have one more question/update about this situation and I promise I won't ask anymore questions regarding this. I have been trying to be even more careful than usual about taking my pill perfectly this cycle but 3 and a half days after the condom broke I took my pill before bed like usual but I woke up an hour later with an awful taste in my mouth like my pill has dissolved in my throat. I asked 2 pharmacists what my protection level would be if it dissolved like that and one said it was fine but the other said it might lower effectiveness. If it did compromise effectiveness, does this mean I lost my pill protection from when the condom broke? Or would I only have to worry about lowered protection for future encounters? (I'm so sorry, the fact that both methods potentially failed so close to one another has me 100% decided just to abstain from sex for the rest of this cycle and potentially until I get married in a few months so I no longer have this anxiety/guilt regarding sex). Thanks so much. I really do promise I will not ask anymore questions regarding this incident.

All you have to worry about here is that you took your pill as directed. If, when you swallow them, it feels like you swallowed them, you're all good. And some people can't swallow pills, so do mash them into things or dissolve them: that's fine.

Honestly, I'm surprised these pharmacists din't tell you that waking up with a bad taste in your mouth is most likely and most commonly acid reflux of some kind based on what you ate last time you did.

Oh my goodness that makes me feel so much better! Thank you so much Heather! I took it at exactly the same time and I drank a little bit of water with it. I ate kind of a larger than normal dinner that night so acid reflux would make so much sense!! I was kind of confused and jaded when they gave me such drastically different answers. I'll consider my pill as taken then. Thank you so much! I promise I won't ask anymore about this pregnancy scare and focus solely on taking sex off the table for the next few months to calm my anxiety. Thank you so much again!

Can I ask if you've yet started any practices for yourself expressly to help you manage your anxiety? If not, want some information on some of those?

I haven't, I guess it's gotten worse over the last year and I've been a bit in denial about it. But I think this incident as well as the affects of some school - related stress have really been eye-opener recently. And yes please,I would definitely appreciate any suggestions you have on anxiety management.

A few things you can try starting with that work for some people are:
- Giving yourself dedicated "worry time." So, for 20 minutes each day, at a set time, you are allowed to worryworryworry to your heart's delight. Then when the timer you set goes off, you have to be done.
- Keeping a journal about all of this, so you can start to see patterns of triggers, what helps and what doesn't, but also have an outlet for it.
- Having a chat with your sexual partner about the what-ifs IF a pregnancy happened: sometimes going ahead and just talking about and addressing your worst-case-scenario very practically, making real plans, can help dial panic down and make the stuff that isn't so realistic fade a bit.
- Starting a meditation practice with a real focus on breathing.

And, of course, seeing about getting some mental healthcare or joining some kind of support group about anxiety, be it in person or online.

Thank you so much Heather! I will absolutely try to do all of the above. I really like the idea of setting a limit on the amount of time I'm allowed to worry each day and taking up some sort of meditation. And I may see if I can talk to some kind of mental health care professional. My sister has struggled with OCD ever since we were both very young so I've been around the symptoms of anxiety disorders and I guess I've just been really in denial about seeing some of the same tendencies in myself. Thank you again for the tips! I will definitely try to focus more from now on on managing my anxiety.

I've been liking to use apps lately to mix up my ongoing meditation practice, and there's one I think is particularly great, especially since it had teens in mind, not just adults, when it was developed. It is also accessible via just the web, if you don't use a smartphone.

That one is: http://stopbreathethink.org/index.html

If you have never tried mediation before, that app can guide you right through it, and in a really warm, clear, and non-woo-woo way.

Oh my gosh that's great! I downloaded it on my phone just now. I'll definitely give it a try! Thank you so so much!

Happy to help.

Btw, there is a also a very quick daily check in with feelings as part of that app that, all by itself, if you could start doing it daily, I think would serve you very well.

Thank you such Heather! I tried the app last night before bed and even after just one session it helped me feel a bit more de-stressed. I will definitely try to continue to use it. Thank you!!!

That's great news!

We've long known the benefits of meditation within certain communities, but in the last few years, there has been an awful lot of broad study on it within medical circles, and the data keeps showing a huge range of helps and benefits it provides, especially with mental health issues like depression and anxiety. That's pretty nice for something a) so simple that anyone can do anywhere, and b) free!

Just a quick update: the app has been absolutely wonderful! Whenever I get anxious now I am trying to do breathing and mental portions of some of the exercises and they seem to really help! I do have a very quick question...I am trying so hard to move past this scare and just move on to focus on calming my anxiety. The last few days my breasts have been very sore (which is not totally unusual for me on the pill and I have drank a lot of caffeine lately) but the timing of it made me a bit nervous. So I took an at home pregnancy test this morning. It has been exactly 13 days since the broken condom today. I know you guys recommend testing around 2 weeks after a risk and planned parenthood recommends 10-14 days minimum. At 13 days after my risk, have I waited long enough to be able to trust my negative result?
Thank you guys so much for your help through this. I feel like once I can rest easy about this once and for all, I can focus on moving on. Thanks so much again!

Hi celica,

Glad to hear that you practicing some self care activities. Please refer to the instructions that came with the pregnancy test. It will let you know when to take the test in order to get accurate results.