Missed Birth Control Pills

Question: What can be done to prevent pregnancy if a woman has missed birth control pills for a few days before being intimate with her partner?

This is a common question about birth control and contraception. Unplanned sexual activity can cause a woman to wake up in the morning and remember to take her birth control pill. She may then feel panic as she realizes she has been so busy that she has missed birth control pills for two or three days in a row.

Just a few days of skipping birth control pills can be enough to leave a woman's body without contraceptive hormone protection. Pregnancy could result unless she is able to get back on the preventative contraceptive pill immediately.

If this series of events happens to you and you do not want to become pregnant, please call your medical provider immediately. Tell your doctor about the missed birth control pills and ask about the morning after pill that can help a woman "catch up" on the missed hormones from her missed birth control pills. This is simply the exact same pills she has already been on but it is a one-time catch-up dose.

Disclaimer: Contraception is a controversial, emotional and very personal women?s health issue. The goal of this educational web page is simply to provide news and information on this health issue so our readers may be better informed. As always, consult your doctor before making any medical related decisions.

What is the morning after pill?

This is an emergency contraception pill. It only works if used within 72 hours of sexual activity. So time is of the essence. You have to hurry.

Much like the regular, daily birth control pills you are familiar with, these are simply hormone pills. The daily pills prevent ovulation and the morning after pills also prevent ovulation, according to the manufacturer.

If you have missed birth control pills, this other hormone pill may still prevent pregnancy because you catch up with your normal doses that you missed.

So this is not an "abortion pill"?

No, not at all. Just ask your doctor. This is only a birth control preventative pill that prevents pregnancy before it can begin. It is the same as regular birth control pills in that regard. This pill simply contains a bit more of the measured dose of the exact same ingredients - hormones, estrogen and/or progestin - that are in daily birth control pills and which prevent ovulation. The pill is for those rare times you may have been skipping birth control pills by mistake and the extra dose helps you catch up, that's all.

This preventative morning after pill does not work once a pregnancy has begun and should not be taken by pregnant women.

A scientific study indicates that these prevention pills have actually lowered the number of requests for abortions. The abortion rate has been going down for several years now and it is believed that these preventative pills are the major reason.

Do the morning after pills work every time?

Sorry, no. According to the FDA, the pills only work about 75% of the time. These pills are not meant to be a replacement for proper contraceptive use. They are named ?emergency? contraception for a good reason.

The morning-after pill is a last chance prevention pill for the rare times when something goes wrong with regular contraception use. Such as when you've missed birth control pills or have had an accident or a problem with condom use.

If you have questions about whether or not you might be pregnant, please click here to visit the early signs of pregnancy page to see our pregnancy symptoms checklist.

Never take any birth control pill if you are pregnant or experiencing early signs of pregnancy symptoms.

You may also want to visit our page about which are the most accurate pregnancy tests



One of the most sensitive tests is made by the people at the Early Pregnancy and Ovulation Tests website.

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