Can you miss days when stacking birth control?

Any time you miss a pill other than the 7 days you take sugar pills and get your period puts you at risk for pregnancy. End of story. No matter what.

Let’s be clear, no matter what words anyone says, there is a nonzero chance of you becoming pregnant by skipping a pill. Shit happens. I myself was conceived when my mom was on the pill but had taken antibiotics (they didn’t know that the antis cancel out the BC in that time).

But I will tell you my experience. I stack my pills and sometimes forget to take one. I usually just take two the next day. This has happened to me more than a few times (just not in a row) and I have remained fine. Your doctor is right, there is a buffer of hormones inside of you, it’s just that sometimes skipping one pill can be enough to trigger ovulation in sensitive women.

So if you can confirm that stacking means ignoring the green pills and simply skipping a week every few months to have your period, then I can feel confident in telling you that the risk of pregnancy is very very low.

PS: If you’re stacking your pills, as in you skip the green placebos and go straight for the pink ones on the next pack (which can be done, it’s a great way to reduce your periods) ask your doctor for an Alesse-21 pack, which simply don’t include the placebos and are a bit cheaper.

yes I do not take the green placebos. I never even thought about getting the alesse 21 , thank you .

If you don’t know when you missed the pill, the best thing to do is use an alternate birth control method (such as a condom) for the next 7 days while taking your pills normally.

Even when taken correctly, the pill is still only 98% effective over the course of a year.

If you have been doing continuous active pills (it sounds like that’s what you mean by “stacking”) and you had taken at least 21 active pills in a row before you missed the one, you’re not at increased risk for pregnancy.

About effectiveness: combnation OCPs taken using the traditional 21/7 regimen have a theoretical “perfect use” effectiveness of about 99.9%. In actual use, the failure rate is about 3%. Failure rate doing continuous active should be lower, everything else being equal. Pills work only partly be preventing ovulation. The other important factor is that the progesterone thickens the cervical mucus to prevent sperm penetration.

BTW, if you’re paying for your birth control pills completely out of pocket, your cheapest option is probably Sprintec or Tri-Sprintec (generic Ortho Cyclen and Ortho Tricyclen). They’re both on Walmart’s $9 a month list.