Facebook Pixel
Q: 

I missed 3 days of my birth control pills

By June 28, 2010 - 7:58am
 
Rate This

I am 25 years old, I have been taking birth control since I was 18. I skipped 3 days of pills (a weds, thurs, and friday) On Thursday we had sex and he came inside of me, on Saturday we had sex again and he pulled out. The first timd we had sex was the 24th of the month and the 2nd was the 26th of the month. The first day of my last period was the 14th of the month. I am also taking an antibiotic that lessens the effectiveness of the pill. What are the chances that I became pregnant?

Add a Comment123 Comments

EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

Hi Sarfis,

Well in most cases, if you miss three days of pills, you take two on one day and two the following day to catch yourself up. If you miss a fourth day, you stop and have to start a new pack after your period.

It all really depends on the type of Pill you are taking and all you need to do is make a telephone call to your Pharmacist. He/She can certainly answer that question per your specific prescription. Good luck!

June 28, 2010 - 11:01am

Hi, Sarfis,

Welcome to EmpowHer, and thank you for your question. Let's see what we can figure out.

I actually see several worrisome signs here that yes, you could have become pregnant. Let me take them one at a time:

When you miss two or three pills, you are in effect unprotected. Your body can ovulate and if it does and you have unprotected sex, that egg can be fertilized and you can be pregnant. So that's worry No. 1.

Worry No. 2 is this: Your two times of unprotected sex (especially the first, when he ejaculated) would have been on the 10th and 12th days of your cycle. That falls right around the time your body would ovulate on its own. (It would be less worrisome if, for instance, the days of unprotected sex had been either very early or very late in your pill pack).

Worry No. 3 is this: Your antibiotics. Antibiotics do, as you said, lessen the effectiveness of birth control pills. So this is working against you as well.

On the good side: Many times when women WANT to get pregnant and start taking the pill, it takes their bodies a month or two to start ovulating on their own again. And even when they have sex at the perfect time for ovulation, they may not become pregnant for several months. And that's without any birth control at all. So even though your chances are higher, it's by no means certain that it would have happened.

If this ever happens again, where you miss a pill or two and have unprotected sex, you can go to the pharmacy within 72 hours (3 days) and get Plan B, the morning-after birth control pill. Unfortunately, it's too late to go that route this cycle.

Does this information help? After you missed the pills, did you try to make them up or start a new pack?

June 28, 2010 - 8:17am
(reply to Diane Porter)

Diane,
thank you for your response, it was very helpful.
After I missed the pills I did in fact try to make them up. I took all three at one time. Should I just wait an see if I miss my next period or should I take a pregnancy test? what should I do?

June 28, 2010 - 10:30am
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
By submitting this form, you agree to EmpowHER's terms of service and privacy policy
Add a Comment

All user-generated information on this site is the opinion of its author only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Members and guests are responsible for their own posts and the potential consequences of those posts detailed in our Terms of Service.

Tags:

Pregnancy

Get Email Updates

Health Newsletter

Receive the latest and greatest in women's health and wellness from EmpowHER - for free!