Help me understand something
I am on Gianvi (28 day regimen). I have taken all pills in my pack on time and correctly so far. On the first pill of the 3rd row i had diarrhea an hour after taking the pill. So to my understanding that would count the pill as a missed pill. But i have no other extra packs of pills to take another one from. So my question is, how many birth control pills do i take before i would be considered protected and safe again? I am not due to start my placebo pills until 11 days from today.
Posted Jun 18, 2018, 3:10 AM UTC
47
Diarrhoea within 3 hours of taking the pill does count as a missed pill, you're right.
Did you take another pill straight away after getting diarrhoea, or wait until the next day? The easiest thing to do is skip the placebos and move straight on to the first active pill of the next pack when you're done. You have to take the pill correctly for 21 days in a row to be safe to take the placebo tablets.
If i do skip the placebos and go immediately into the next pack, how many pills do would i take to become protected from pregnancy?
So if you took another pill straight away after diarrhoea/within a few hours, so the second pill was less than 12 hours after you should have taken it [I'm not explaining well. Say you normally take pill at 7pm, then had diarrhoea at 8pm. If you took an extra pill before 7am the next morning, so two that day, you never technically missed a dose]:
You're protected from pregnancy already, and have been the whole time
Because there are 24 active pills per month in Gianvi, you can have the placebos as normal if you want. Just make sure you take at least 21 active pills this month and next month.
If you didn't take an extra pill on the day you had diarrhoea:
You're protected from pregnancy after taking 7 active pills properly. So one week from when you had diarrhoea
To stay protected you need to take 21 days of active pills in a row before you next have a withdrawal bleed, so you skip placebos this month and go straight to the first active pill of the next pack. That way there is no gap in protection after those first 7 days.
Okay thank you so much