Scarleteen

I have been on birth control now for 4 years. I am super strict about taking my pill at the same time everyday & cannot recall actually ever missing a pill. On Tuesday April 12th I completely forgot my pill & on Wednesday April 13th I took my pill about 11 hours late. I then had sex on Sunday April 17th & started my period on April 25th. I was supposed to start my period May 13th but am now 3 days late. My birth control has also been causing me to have two periods in the same month recently. I am wondering if I was still protected even though I missed one pill? I know it says taking a pill before 12 hours isn't considered missing. I haven't missed a pill before so I'm kind of concerned

Hi there,

I know we covered this in chat today; is there anything we talked about there that you need more clarification on?

Mo wrote:Hi there,

I know we covered this in chat today; is there anything we talked about there that you need more clarification on?

So since I took my late pill within the 12 hour time frame was the effectiveness still about the same?

Hey bp12,

If a pill is taken within the 12 hour window then it is not considered late or missed and is still considered proper use. But as Mo said in chat, missing a pill can impact the effectiveness.

You can assume you have "typical use" protection from your birth control, which takes into account a missed or late pill every now and then.

So should I still be pretty safe? Thanks so much for your reply!

So no method is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. For the pill the level of protection for "typical use" is pretty high at 91% in a year (or 9 out of 100 people become pregnant a year).

So what is considered a late pill?

ashleah wrote:So no method is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. For the pill the level of protection for "typical use" is pretty high at 91% in a year (or 9 out of 100 people become pregnant a year).

Also do you have any possible suggestions of why my period is late?

If you check that instructions that come in your pill packet (you can do a search online if you threw it away) you can see what that particular brand states as being late. We really can't say why you're not seeing your period when you're expecting it but since you've recently had a big shift in how often they're occurring, it's going to be hard to predict it with any certainty.

Right now, though, what's done is done and it seems pretty clear that dwelling on these details is causing you a lot of stress. I think taking whatever steps you can to minimize that stress, and make a plan for how you want to handle birth control moving forward, is going to be your best bet here. We can talk about birth control and how it works, but we can't tell you if you're pregnant or not, or have a conversation that's just about pregnancy anxiety at the heart of it. You can read a bit more about that, as well as find links to all of our materials on dealing with pregnancy worries, here.

ashleah wrote:So no method is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. For the pill the level of protection for "typical use" is pretty high at 91% in a year (or 9 out of 100 people become pregnant a year).

My birth control packet says that if you miss one pill you are still "protected" and there's no need for backup. So taking my other pill 11 hours late didn't really effect anything did it?

Hi bp12,

We have given you all the information we have and I think have pretty well answered this question. To add on to what Mo said, you seem to be dwelling on this and it may be causing you some anxiety? If you want to discuss that more we would love to have that conversation with you, otherwise we have told you all the information we can about pill effectiveness.