Hormonal Contraception: The Pill [General Discussion]

The overview I laid out is just the standard protocol when first you start transcribing hormone prescriptions, based on the question asked here. If a patient has been on a specific med before, it’s super easy for the next doctor to just renew the script without doing a deep dive...

Just because someone isn't doing their job quite by the book doesn't mean the standard procedure should be described differently. Mentioning certain medical history is just about getting the full picture of what actually matters for hormonal birth control. Like, having the flu last fall or breaking a leg when you were a kid? Doesn't matter. But cardiovascular issues, diabetes, or a family history of blood clotting? That's the real deal...

The second your doctor sees you, certain risks jump right out at them. They don't necessarily need to grill you just to eyeball a normal BMI. If someone walks in looking young and fit, healthy complexion, says they're fine and their family is too... honestly, they might not even bother with the scale or a blood pressure cuff. Are we aiming for the bare minimum here, or following the actual standard practice?

...

Does drinking tea with UVIN maybe lower the contraceptive effectiveness of combined pills?

I've been pondering something lately, and I have a feeling some of you experts here might be able to shed some light on it. 🙂
If someone happens to become pregnant while they're still taking their birth control pills—whether that's because a pill was accidentally missed or the protection just failed for some reason—are the pills taken during pregnancy actually harmful to the developing baby?

velvetharbor17 said:Does drinking tea with UVIN maybe lower the contraceptive effectiveness of combined pills?

No.

Lawrence White5 said:I've been pondering something lately, and I have a feeling some of you experts here might be able to shed some light on it. 🙂
If someone happens to become pregnant while they're still taking their birth control pills—whether that's because a pill was accidentally missed or the protection just failed for some reason—are the pills taken during pregnancy actually harmful to the developing baby?

Every single instruction says no.

It would be really helpful if someone could share a real-life example from their own experience. 😁 Honestly, thinking about it makes me feel a little bit uneasy...

Then someone else will step up—someone who had a baby with developmental issues and was told (or thinks) it happened because of the pills. So what then? Just because they say it doesn't mean it's a fact.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't let this get to me. Stick to what the official instructions actually say. Honestly, I’d take any claims from someone saying, "I took these pills and then got pregnant," with a massive grain of salt.

Yeah, you’re definitely making some great points here 😁
!

I personally know a woman—a family friend—who ended up pregnant while on the pill. Not a single doctor she saw, and she consulted quite a few, could guarantee she’d have a healthy baby. In the end, she suffered a miscarriage. I don't know; people write all sorts of things online, but for me, this is enough proof that something like this (getting pregnant while on birth control) isn't exactly ideal or healthy.🤷

Edit: This isn't about someone being irresponsible, so hearsay from people here doesn't really carry weight for me.

Tyler James5 said:The overview I laid out is just the standard protocol when first you start transcribing hormone prescriptions, based on the question asked here. If a patient has been on a specific med before, it’s super easy for the next doctor to just renew the script without doing a deep dive...

Just because someone isn't doing their job quite by the book doesn't mean the standard procedure should be described differently. Mentioning certain medical history is just about getting the full picture of what actually matters for hormonal birth control. Like, having the flu last fall or breaking a leg when you were a kid? Doesn't matter. But cardiovascular issues, diabetes, or a family history of blood clotting? That's the real deal...

The second your doctor sees you, certain risks jump right out at them. They don't necessarily need to grill you just to eyeball a normal BMI. If someone walks in looking young and fit, healthy complexion, says they're fine and their family is too... honestly, they might not even bother with the scale or a blood pressure cuff. Are we aiming for the bare minimum here, or following the actual standard practice?

...

Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought was happening here. This is my first time, and honestly, it’s my first time seeing a gynecologist at all.
Thanks everyone! 🙂

Bryan Doyle10 said:I personally know a woman—a family friend—who ended up pregnant while on the pill. Not a single doctor she saw, and she consulted quite a few, could guarantee she’d have a healthy baby. In the end, she suffered a miscarriage. I don't know; people write all sorts of things online, but for me, this is enough proof that something like this (getting pregnant while on birth control) isn't exactly ideal or healthy.🤷

Edit: This isn't about someone being irresponsible, so hearsay from people here doesn't really carry weight for me.

Even when a pregnancy happens under perfectly "normal" circumstances, nobody can honestly guarantee that the baby will be healthy. My guess is it was simply too early in the process for any potential "issues" to show up on an ultrasound. So, looking at it that way, this doesn't really provide a direct answer to the question I asked.

Hold on a second... You’re asking if birth control pills are harmful to a fetus if someone gets pregnant while on them, looking for actual experiences, and then—once you get an answer—you pivot to that logic of, "Well, a baby conceived through unprotected sex can still be born sick." Honestly, I find that pretty ridiculous. You might as well just wait for some woman who happened to get pregnant while on the pill to come along and give you medical advice. Whether you like my take or not, those of us on hormonal contraceptives are fundamentally altering our body chemistry. No doctor in the States is going to tell you to try for a baby while you're actively taking them.

My gynecologist suggested taking a month-long break after finishing the last pill before we started trying for a baby. At the end of the day, it's your call.

Lawrence White - now you see why I said what I said, right? 🤣

Don't even bother stressing over those questions.

@ barsana - Look, the core of the issue is that it doesn’t necessarily mean the outcome was harmful or safe; it just means she went through an abortion without any way of knowing if the baby was healthy or not. That isn't really the kind of lived experience I was hoping to connect with here. I was honestly thinking someone might chime in if they had specific insight regarding the baby's status 😉
@ Victoria - Yeah, you know what, I'm calling it quits 😁

Not sure if this is the right spot for it—but hey, worth a shot, right?

Hey everyone, just had a quick question...
So, I finished my first pack of birth control pills yesterday (taking Lyndinet 20), but my period still hasn't shown up—it’s actually been about three weeks now :/ When can I usually expect things to get back to a normal rhythm? Should I see it by the 3rd of next month? I'm really hoping someone here has dealt with this before and might be able to help out. Thanks in advance!

Lawrence White5 said:@ barsana - Look, the core of the issue is that it doesn’t necessarily mean the outcome was harmful or safe; it just means she went through an abortion without any way of knowing if the baby was healthy or not. That isn't really the kind of lived experience I was hoping to connect with here. I was honestly thinking someone might chime in if they had specific insight regarding the baby's status 😉
@ Victoria - Yeah, you know what, I'm calling it quits 😁

If it helps at all—my brother's wife ended up pregnant like that. Looks like everything's fine with the kid.😁
Been over a year now.

So, judging by how things are looking, my OB-GYN is probably going to put me on birth control because of my PCOS.
Two of my friends, who both graduated with pharmacy degrees, are seriously trying to talk me out of it. They’re telling me that, according to some professor they had back in school, it’s basically the second most aggressive thing you can do to your body after chemo. One of them was on Diane, and her hair started falling out like crazy—she actually had bald spots the size of a $1.75 coin all over her head.
On the flip side, this PCOS stuff has been messing with me since I was 18, maybe even earlier, but that was the first time I actually went in for a checkup (I'm 25 now). My cycle can drag on for like 50 days sometimes. And the PMS? It can last up to two weeks. Things actually stabilized a bit last year, but now everything is right back to where it started. At my last appointment last week, the doctor told me one ovary is covered in cysts while the other looks relatively fine, and she wants me to come back on day 4 or 5 of my next period. I have a feeling she’s just going to tell me to start the pill then. I honestly don't know what to do. I'm in a massive dilemma...

@ Edward Murphy4 - thanks for sharing your experience! 🙂 ...I’m just curious about one thing: once she realized she was pregnant, did she stop taking the pills immediately, or did she keep going for a little while longer after the fact?

Jamie Kern20 said:Not sure if this is the right spot for it—but hey, worth a shot, right?

Hey everyone, just had a quick question...
So, I finished my first pack of birth control pills yesterday (taking Lyndinet 20), but my period still hasn't shown up—it’s actually been about three weeks now :/ When can I usually expect things to get back to a normal rhythm? Should I see it by the 3rd of next month? I'm really hoping someone here has dealt with this before and might be able to help out. Thanks in advance!

Forget the gynecologist—listen, I was bleeding for 14 days straight back when I was living in Mexico City. I had to take two pills at a time for two days just to get things under control before I could go back to my regular routine. But seriously—do NOT try to play doctor with this stuff on your own...

Labrić, other people's experiences don't mean a damn thing to you. They aren't some kind of guarantee that nothing will go wrong or that everything will be fine. What does it matter if someone writes about having a healthy baby? We could be talking about how much certain things "didn't cause harm," but those issues can pop up ten, twenty, or thirty years down the line. What happens if you end up with a child who has complications?

Anyway, from what I know, they recommend taking about a three-month break after you stop using it, though I know some girls who didn't wait that long and everything turned out okay. There's something else stuck in my head—I can't remember where I read it, but apparently kids can be more prone to asthma, allergies, and stuff like that. Honestly, that alone would be enough reason for me to take the recommended break. I won't even get into how hormones can trigger anything from tumors to autoimmune diseases. This isn't something to play around with. 🙂

velvetharbor17 said:Forget the gynecologist—listen, I was bleeding for 14 days straight back when I was living in Mexico City. I had to take two pills at a time for two days just to get things under control before I could go back to my regular routine. But seriously—do NOT try to play doctor with this stuff on your own...

When my doctor prescribed them, he mentioned there’s a chance my cycle might run long this month—though I definitely wasn't expecting it to last this long! :S My ovaries are absolutely killing me and my period just won't quit... looks like I'll have to give him a call after all. Was this the first month you started taking them, where everything finally began to level out? I'm definitely not playing doctor here—I have actual medical reasons for being on these anyway..