Did you know you can still get pregnant even if you are on birth control pills? Birth control pills prevent pregnancy up to 99% effective. However, each year about 2-8% of pregnant women are still using the drug. Why is that?
Here are five possible causes of birth control pills to be ineffective or even fail to help you prevent pregnancy:
Do not take the medicine at the same time every day
Due to its health effects, estrogen levels in oral contraceptives have been significantly reduced since it was first introduced in 1960. Modern birth control pills, often referred to as "low dose" pills, contain about 20 mcg of estrogen, less than half the 50 mcg found in previous birth control pills. So it is more important than ever that women take the pill every day at the same time.
Missed dose
Worse than not taking the medicine at the same time every day is forgetting the dose. You need to be very careful if you miss a dose of birth control pills.
Alcohol
Drinking wine with dinner or other alcoholic beverages can decrease the effectiveness of the medicine. Why? Because alcohol is metabolized in the liver, if the drug affects the liver, drinking alcohol can affect the mechanism of action of the drug. This is especially true for heavy drinkers. Once the liver's function is affected by excessive alcohol consumption, the effectiveness of the birth control pill will also change.
Antibiotics / epilepsy medications
Medications to treat diseases of the nervous system, especially epilepsy medications such as Dilantin and carbamazepine, may decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills. There is not enough research to prove the effect of antibiotics on the effectiveness of birth control pills, but to be sure, contact your doctor if you must take antibiotics while taking birth control pills.
Multi-purpose drug
Multi-purpose drugs can be very economical, but they do not contain the same amount of medicine as other specialized medicines such as estrogen-progestin or a combination that prevents ovulation each month. While progestin drugs also thicken uterine mucus, reducing sperm movement. Oral contraceptives do not completely prevent you from reaching your full potential for pregnancy.
In general, taking birth control pills early in pregnancy doesn't cause much of a concern. Although this situation sometimes occurs in women who do not intend to become pregnant.
Most babies are born healthy even when their mothers take birth control pills in early pregnancy. However, if you are concerned and want to make sure your baby is healthy, you should see and talk to your doctor.
Explore more:
Long-term oral contraceptive use can cause infertility?
4 unexpected benefits of birth control pills
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