Gre asked
I'm on the "mini-pill" just called desogestrel and I had to move out of my dorm. They were in my bag at my feet in passenger seat in the car at 22-27 degrees C. Usually my pills are kept on my bed side table away from light and direct sun light. Will this be okay? I worry as I know its birth control contains hormones and these can denature if in temperature away from their ideal storage conditions.
Answer
The recommended storage conditions for birth control pills are as follows:
- Store at 25°C (77°F); excursions permitted to 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F).
- An excursion is defined by the USP (United State Pharmacopeia) as removal from the set storage conditions for no longer than 24 hours.
In your case, the pills were exposed to a maximum temperature of 27° Celsius, which translates to 80.6° Fahrenheit. This is within the allowable excursion range for your birth control pill. However, very often, inside a car is much hotter than the temperature outside, so there is some cause for concern.
Do High Temperatures Affect Birth Control Pills?
When it comes to high temperatures and birth control pills, there are a lack of studies that allow us to definitively know whether or not the hormones contained in the pills are negatively affected. However, studies suggest that for most drugs in a solid dosage form (e.g. tablets), the integrity of dosage form is more affected than the actual drug itself.
High temperatures can cause tablets to disintegrate or break apart easily. This could make it difficult to take the entire, intact dose. In addition, high temperatues could affect the disintegration and dissolution properties of a dosage form once ingested, leading to changes in absorption.
Nevertheless, high temperatures do cause some drugs to lose potency and with birth control pills, we are especially concerned about a potential loss in therapeutic effect and this could have serious consequences. Some studies state that increases in temperature can increase the rate of oxidation or hydrolysis, reactions which will degrade chemical compounds. In fact, some sources state that every 10°C (50°F) increase in temperature causes exponential increases in the rate of these degredation reactions.
Unfortunately, there is always ambiguity when it comes to leaving medications, such as birth control, outside of the recommended storage conditions. More likely than not, the potency of your birth control pills haven't been significantly affected but, as the consequences of unintended pregnancy are significant, and we cannot definitively know if your birth control pills were affected, it is recommended to discard your birth control pills and start a new pack, just to be safe.
