Kat asked
I am on the inactive pill part of my birth control today and I noticed that I took the Monday inactive pill, when I should have taken the Sunday one. It seems like yestready, Saturday, I took the Sunday inactive pill and doubled up on my active pills on Friday. My question is do I just continue my inactive pills and start my new pack on the regular schedule?
Answer
In your case, you took two active pills in your last week of birth control pack by accident. This isn't a huge issue, but you may experience some nausea or spotting due to this. More importantly however, this means that you will be one active pill short at the end of your pack (i.e. you will "miss" your last dose).
You can do one of two things to rectify this:
- Take an active pill from another, spare pack. This may be preferred as you will be able to stay on your usual schedule.
- Simply continue taking the remaining inactive pills at the usual time. You most likely will not be at an increased risk of pregnancy but will now be one day ahead of your usual schedule.
Missed Last Dose Of Birth Control Pill
If you have a spare pack available, you can take the pill you missed from that pack so you will stay on schedule. If it is too late for that, or you do not have a spare pack, simply continue on your inactive pills. However, since you missed the last day of active pills with your pack, you may get your period 1-2 days sooner than usual.
In addition, you will be starting your next birth control pack one day early, since you want to stay on schedule (meaning you take the first active pill of your next pack after a 7 day hormone free interval). If you stick to your normal schedule, you would technically be missing the first dose of your next pack.
To summarize:
- You accidentally took two active pills on Friday in the last week of your pack.
- You therefore missed the Saturday dose, which would have been your last active pill.
- Since you ended your birth control pill pack one day earlier than scheduled, you may get your period 1-2 days early.
- Under your normal schedule, you would have started your new pack of pills on Sunday. However, since you ended your last pack one day early, your new pack is scheduled to begin on Saturday.
- If you start your next pack on your usual schedule (Sunday instead of Saturday), you would technically be missing the first dose of your pills.
It isn't recommended to miss birth control pills, as it increases your risk of pregnancy. However, if you wanted to start on Sunday instead of Saturday, it would necessitate you taking a spare pill from another pack. If you choose to miss that first dose, you may want to use back-up contraception (e.g. condoms) if you are sexually active until you take at least 7 days in a row of active pills. Per most sources, such as the CDC, missing one dose of pills doesn't significantly increase the risk of pregnancy but back-up contraception is never a bad idea after a missed dose as the consequences of unintended pregnancy are great.
