For most pills, the change causes no problems except for possible breakthrough bleeding. So keep taking the pills but check in with your health care provider to make sure.
Taking a pill out of order only matters if you use a 28-day combination pill pack, and you took an inactive pill instead of an active one. If you took an inactive pill when you should have taken an active one, it's the same as skipping a pill.
Combination birth control pills come in different mixtures of active and inactive pills, including: Conventional pack. One common type contains 21 active pills and seven inactive pills. Inactive pills do not contain hormones.
While it is best to take one pill every 24 hours, it is also ok to take the pill slightly less or slightly more than 24 hours after you took your last one if you are using the combined pill. However, taking the pill more than five hours late, or missing it entirely, can increase your risk of getting pregnant.
The best thing to do is end your pack on the current time, and start your new pack at the time you now prefer. That way, you don't need a backup birth control method. If you switch the time in the middle of a cycle, you will need to use a backup method of birth control, like condoms, until your next pack begins.
You can start taking birth control pills as soon as you get them — any day of the week, and anytime during your menstrual cycle.
Continue taking your contraceptive pills
If you've accidentally taken any extra pills, carry on taking the rest of your packet as normal at the same time you usually take it each day.
Take the first pill from the section of the packet marked 'start'. This will be an active pill. Continue to take a pill every day, in the correct order and preferably at the same time each day, until the pack is finished (28 days). During the 7 days of taking the inactive pills, you'll get a bleed (like a period).
The only difference between the 28-day and the 21-day packet of pills is the 7 inactive pills in the 28-day packet. With the 28-day pack, one starts the packet on the 1st day of menstrual bleeding, taking the pill from the shaded section marked with the appropriate day.
Although research is lacking, we do know that people react differently to different versions of the combined pill, as well as other kinds of birth control. Some people may experience heavy bleeding, cramps, headaches, mood problems, and more on one kind of birth control pill, but not another.
If you are 15 minutes late in taking your pill, you may experience break-through bleeding. If you are 3 hours late, you need to use a back-up method of birth control for two days after taking that missed pill.
The birth control pills for the last week do not contain any active hormones. However, people who decide to skip the placebo pills must remember to restart the next pill pack on time. They need to skip no more than 7 days of pills to continue to prevent pregnancy.
The pill and minipill: The hormones from the pill or minipill will leave your system 48 hours after the last pill was taken. Expect your menstrual cycles and ovulation to return to your “normal” within three months after stopping the pill.
It's considered “missed” if it's been more than three hours since you should have taken your pill. A single missed pill means you're at risk for getting pregnant.
If you go more than seven days without the hormone, then you risk ovulation occurring — this is when an egg travels from your ovaries to your uterus for fertilization — therefore increasing the risk of pregnancy.
Most instructions tell you to take a seven-day pill-free break but you can choose to shorten this break, or to miss it and not have a withdrawal bleed (see Can I miss out my withdrawal bleed? on page 11).
When you stop taking in hormones during the placebo week (or the “off” week if your pack is only 21 days, when you get your period), the window during which you could ovulate is already passed. The key thing to remember is to start your next pill pack on time, and if you do the pill will keep working its magic.
This means that 21 pills have different amounts of hormones in them depending on the day they are supposed to be taken on, while the remaining 7 are placebos or place holders. The pills are supposed to be consumed each day at the same time. When a pack of 28 pills is consumed, a new pack is begun right away.
You are protected from pregnancy during your pill free week as long as you start taking your pill again on the 8th day. The clinic doctor or nurse may suggest that you take the pill in a different, more modern way. This has several advantages: you will have less breaks from the pill and therefore less periods.
You can start taking your birth control pills as soon as you get them — any day of the week, and anytime during your menstrual cycle. But when you'll be protected from pregnancy depends on when you start and the kind of pill you're using.
First Day Start - Take your first pill during the first 24 hours of your menstrual cycle. No back-up contraceptive method is needed when the pill is started the first day of your menses. Sunday Start - Wait until the first Sunday after your menstrual cycle begins to take your first pill.
24-Day Packs
Yaz 28 (and Beyaz): The dosage regimen of Yaz is unique in that it contains 24 days of hormone pills, followed by 4 reminder-day pills. This option might offer people fewer hormone fluctuations than the traditional 21 days of active pills per 28-day cycle.
Yup, it's totally fine to skip the non-hormonal pills (aka placebo pills or reminder pills) in your pill pack. The non-hormonal pills are just there to help you remember to take your pill every day and start your next pack on time.
The '7 day rule' is based on the following: When you first start taking the pill it takes about 7 days for the pill hormone to put the ovaries to 'sleep'. So if it seems that the pill may have been missed, or not been absorbed properly, and the ovaries might have 'awakened'.