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After two and a half months on the birth control pill, yes, you should be protected.

One thing to know is this: Birth control pills, when used perfectly (taking the pill every day without fail and taking it at the same time every day) fail only about 1% to 3% of the time. That's pretty small, right? But that represents 1 to 3 women out of every 100 who get pregnant on the pill even while taking it perfectly. If a gynecologist has 1000 total patients on the pill, for instance, that means that 10 to 30 would get pregnant that year while on the pill. It's a small chance, but it does exist.

Condoms are a backstop for this, as well as a preventative for sexually transmitted diseases. Have you and your boyfriend been monogamous for a long time? Do both of you know for sure that you have no sexually transmitted diseases? It's something that you have to be sure of to protect your body throughout life. Birth controls prevent only pregnancy, not STDs.

If you ever miss a birth control pill, take it as soon as you remember and then take the next day's pill at its regular time. If you should ever miss two birth control pills, you actually want to take two pills two days in a row, AND use an extra form of birth control for at least seven days. (In other words, if you miss Monday and Tuesday's pills, on Wednesday you would take two pills (from Mon and Tue) and on Thursday you would take two pills (from Wed and Thu) and then on Friday you would be back to taking just one pill. And from the time you realize that you missed the two pills, you would use another form of birth control, like condoms, for seven days to protect yourself.

Congratulations on being pro-active, using condoms and using birth control pills to take care of yourself. It's the mature and responsible thing to do when you're having sex, and you'd be surprised at how many women don't do it.

August 6, 2009 - 8:40am

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