Scarleteen

Dear Sacrleteen,

This fourth of July I went to a street fair and stayed to watch the fireworks show. It was probably 90-95 degrees Farenheit outside. My birth control pills were deep down inside of my purse and I tried my best to keep my purse in the shade whenever possible. It was probably sunny and that hot for a total of 6 hours. Would that kind of exposure pose a significant risk to my pills' efficacy? I asked a pharmacist and she was not sure. I have since taken 3 pills and have had no changes in my cycle like breakthrough bleeding. I am so sorry to ask you guys so many birth control pill storage questions. As soon as my prescription runs out in a few months, I am planning on switching over to the contraceptive implant so I don't even have to worry about such things anymore. (Also I never have sex without a condom in addition to my pill so I am not worried about a pregnancy risk, I just am trying to figure out if I need to go get a new pack of pills or just continue taking them as normal--I only have 3 active ones left this pack.) Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Celica

Hi celica,

Since the pharmacist was unsure (was there any info in the materials that came with the pill?), this sounds like a time to plan on just using condoms as a back-up method for the next little while. That way, if the effectiveness has been decreased, you've got coverage from the condom. And high five on deciding to switch to the implant since you've found the pills are not to your liking

Thank you so much for the fast reply Sam! That makes perfect sense. And thank you for your support on the implant. I am super excited about how effect it is and the almost zero room for user error. Thank you!!