Scarleteen

I just started a new pack of Tri-cyclen birth control pills yesterday. Today while taking my pill my nail accidently put a whole in one of the blister pockets of my 9th pill in the pack. It's not big enough for the pill to come out but there's definitely a hole in there. What do I do? Is it still safe to use if I keep it like that?

It's best to check with a pharmacist, as they're the experts about medication.

The main purpose of a blister pack is to keep the tablets safe from any kind of degradation from air or moisture, so personally, what I would do is to store the pill pack in a clean, dry, air-tight container (or if you don't have something air-tight or you're not sure, at least something that you can close and seal reasonably well, like a tin or a plastic box) until I could get that advice from a pharmacist.

You definitely wouldn't want to use any medication that had had a broken seal for a long time, or if you didn't know when or how it was broken. For what you described above, though, it's worth asking a pharmacist what they recommend.

I called the pharmacist and they said air wouldn't do anything unless it was like left out on the table or in direct sunlight. The blister pack wasn't fully open where the pill could fall out, it was just a tear. He said I could take it out and put it in a container or just seal it with tape. I ended up sealing it with tape about 18 hours after it happened. I store them in the pill sleeve that it comes in and I always keep it in my purse. I don't know I hope it's okay to still keep.

If that's the advice you got from the pharmacist, then you can trust your pill will be okay. It's their job to make sure that people's medications are still effective and working the way they're supposed to. If you're worried about something getting into the package where it was torn, you can always keep this package somewhere safer than your purse until you've gotten past that pill.

Okay. I'm honestly not sure if I broke it yesterday or possibly even the day before. I taped up the hole but it still makes me a bit nervous about the effectiveness.

That's understandable. If you're using the pill for pregnancy prevention, and you aren't comfortable relying on it alone for protection during this pack, you can always use a backup method like condoms (two methods are always better than one anyways, and condoms as a bonus are the only method that also protects against STIs).

Yeah I will probably use condoms as well I'm just scared of it breaking. I put tape on over the hole on the package so that nothing goes inside. I assume it should be fine, I don't think air interferes with breaking down the pill? It's not like I just left it out in the sun.

If you're worried about condoms breaking when you use them, this is a great article that covers some common condom mistakes and how to avoid them:All the Barriers! All the Time!

Since your pharmacist told you the hole itself is not cause for concern unless you leave it in the sun, you can assume it's fine.