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At breakfast this morning, someone told me that, despite medical advice and packaging info, birth control pill effectiveness is lowered if it's taken outside about a fifteen-minute window.
Now, my first instinct instinct is that this is grossly wrong, but I figured I'd ask. Perhaps someone here would know the source of this theory.
-------------------- "You owe me two lifetimes and a pair of perfect blue eyes." Posts: 407 | From: Georgia | Registered: Aug 2004
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You're safe if you take it within a three hour window. As long as it's the same three hour window every day.
Posts: 34 | From: United States | Registered: Sep 2007
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That's what everything I've read has said. I'm still trying to figure out where the heck the person I had breakfast with heard their info -- there's virtually NOTHING in print to back it up.
-------------------- "You owe me two lifetimes and a pair of perfect blue eyes." Posts: 407 | From: Georgia | Registered: Aug 2004
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And actually, that three-hour window is even for the minipill. That one does need to be within three hours every day to be perfect use effectiveness.
With combination pills, though, we know at this point that really, so long as those are just taken once a day without fail -- but ideally within a 12-hour window -- they should still be effective.
-------------------- Heather Corinna, Executive Director & Founder, Scarleteen About Me • Get our book! Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead Posts: 63426 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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That's exactly what I thought. So I was right to just roll my eyes at breakfast -- I just wanted to completely make sure, because misinformation like that bugs the heck out of me. If it weren't true, it wouldn't be approved by the FDA and printed on the dang packet insert.
Thanks Heather!
-------------------- "You owe me two lifetimes and a pair of perfect blue eyes." Posts: 407 | From: Georgia | Registered: Aug 2004
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