Expert: Diane Cheryl - 5/23/2008

Question
I'm in the middle of  my pack of birth control, and tonight when I went to take my pill, I discovered that it had fallen out of my purse, and I'm not sure where it is. I take my active pills three months straight to avoid my periods, and I can't remember whether it was last month's pack or this pack that I was late on one pill by about 12 hours, but I'm almost positive it was the last pack. I haven't had sex recently and don't plan on it for a few days, and if I do not find my pill tonight I  am not really concerned about my immediate protection from missing a pill. Tomorrow morning I will be going to get a new pack of pills, and I will take the missed pill and the one that I was supposed to take tomorrow as well. I was wondering if five days from today I will be protected by my pill or not.

Answer
Hi Kelsey,

Did you do what you said in your post? Get the new pack of pills and take the missed pill and the regular one? You should be semi-protected if you did that method. However, I'm sure you know that the pill is not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy. Have you had any problems from skipping your periods for 3 months at a time? I cannot recommend that and just wondered how your health is doing. Just curious. If you want to, you can email me at DCHERYL51@yahoo.com to tell me what all has happened. If you have any symptoms of pregnancy, you can get a free test at a pregnancy resource center by calling 1-800-395-HELP or going to the web page http://www.optionline.org
If you are not in U.S. then go to http://www.heartbeatinternational.org/worldwide_directory.asp

Sincerely,
Diane Cheryl