Saturday, November 7, 2009

Is it critical to take birth control pills at the exact same time of day?

or do you just consider times as morning, afternoon, or evening?When i wake up on the weekends its obviously later than during the week, so i take it a couple hours later. Any input would be very helpful.
Answers:
Usually, there's a grace period of about 3 hours, but you should really try to take them at the same time every day. Maybe you could slowly move the time you take it to the evening, and set an alarm on your cell phone, etc.
yes it is.
They suggest taking it within an hour of the same time every day. However as long as you are not sleeping until noon on the weekends when you usually take it at six during the week days you will be fine.
You should try to be consistent with the time you take them. Try putting them some place where you can see them to help you remember.
Yes it does matter. My friend got pregnant and she was on the pill--the Dr. said that it is very important to take it at the same time everyday.
They are most effective when taken as close to 24 hours apart as possible. The reason is that the pills whole purpose is to prevent you from ovulating and taking them at irratic times makes that less effective. So if it's just a couple hours difference it should be okay not that big of a deal, but that's why they give you all those instructions on what to do if you miss a pill, etc. When you start your next pack, consider taking them before bed instead so you can take them closer to the same time and not worry about sleeping in on the weekend.
i have to agree, you have to take the pill at the same time of the day, if you forget it you can still take it 12 hours after wards and you still are protected from an unwanted pregnancy (but that doesn't mean that you forget it every day cause than the protection is gone)
The combined pill has a 12 hour window in which it is ok to take the pill, you don't have to take it at exactly the same time. If you are on the progestogen only pill, you only have a 3 hour window so it is more important to take it at the same time (with the exception of Cerozette which has a 12 hour window like the combined pill).
a couple hours shouldn't be too big of a deal. but you want to do as close to 24h as possible.the pill works by maintaining a constant, low concentration of estrogen in the body. this keeps your body from producing its own estrogen and cycling amounts in the blood to trigger ovulation. as soon as you take the pill, it starts to absorb into your bloodstream, and the drug formulation is designed to maintain that low concentration of estrogen for 24 hours. after that, you begin to see a rapid decrease of drug (estrogen) in the blood as the pill you took the day before is gone and your body starts to clear out the drug. soon your blood doesn't contain enough estrogen to stop the body's own production of estrogen.this is a simple lesson in pharmacokinetics. there is a certain threshhold at which the drug is no longer effective. you want to make sure you take the pill at the same time every day to maintain that effective concentration. after you drop below the threshhold, it takes a bit of time to build the drug level back up in the body and that's where the problems kick in.

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