Expert: Diane Cheryl - 4/6/2010

Question
Hi Diane, I have a question for you.

I've been on the pill (Yaz, to be more accurate), for a couple of months now. I took a break from it on February past, got my period on the first days of March, and  started taking Yaz again.

Now, about a week after starting the pill, on a Sunday, I had a little episode. I am a bulimic in recovery, and that day, I took my pill at the regular time (2pm) right after lunch. At around 6pm I had little binge episode, and proceeded to purge (vomiting) at 6.30pm.

What I'm wondering is, considering that over 4 hours had gone by after taking my pill, and that I purged only what I ate after that, what is the relative risk of pregnancy I have? It's worth mentioning that I had sex without a condom around 6 days after (but he never ejaculates inside).


Yaz is a 24-4 pill, and I am starting my third day on inactive pills but no signs of my period yet, so I am quite worried. I hope you can help me! Thank you :)

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

Sorry I was not able to get to your question until today. Please let me know what has happened since you sent me your question. You may email me at CHERYL51@aol.com and put ALLEXPERTS in the subject line of your email.

It's possible that you could be pregnant but I don't know the percentage of risk. Any time you have sex, whether supposedly "unprotected" or "protected" you run the risk of pregnancy. Even if you take the pill 100% exactly correctly, you still run the risk of pregnancy.

So let me know what happens. The places you can get a free pregnancy test is
http://www.optionline.org or call 1-800-395-HELP

Sincerely,
Diane Cheryl