Risk of pregnancy - on minipill with breakthrough bleed and antibiotic use

Hey guys,
So I've been on my same birth control pill for about a year now, and have never once missed a pill. About 2 weeks ago I had sex and we used a condom, but the condom broke. About 8 or 9 days later I started taking Prednisone and Azithromycin because I had tonsillitis. I'm kinda freaking out because last night I started spotting, just a little bit, but it still worries me. I really can't have a baby I'm only in college. I still have until Saturday with active pills until I start my placebo week and I'm stressing out. Can anyone help?

Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone could help me.
Ive been taking the mini pill for about 6 months now and recently had sex with my boyfriend. The day after I started bleeding and now I have period pains and actually am now on my period. I was just wondering if having sex with him triggered my period and if so was I still protected the time we had sex?

Hi I am 4 weeks pregnant in 2 days. i have PCOS so the doctor did a pregnancy test at 2 weeks and it came out negative i am trying for a baby so she tried inducing a bleed and put me on northestorone and i had sore breasts at 3 weeks so took a pregnancy test and its positive. I was worried becuase i took the mini pill for 6 days 3 a day. I was wondering whether i have affected the fetus?

Hii i was wondering if some one could help me. iv recently had an abortion on the 7th of july also on the same day i was given a course of antibotics for seven days to reduce the risk of infection, also i started the mini pill cerazette. On the 16th july i had unprotected sex and then started my period the next day. i was wondering if some body could advice me if im protected from being pregnent?

Concerned,

You have more patience than I would have! I'll be interested to hear what happens and when. It's smart to keep such a detailed chart of your cycles; having something to refer back to can be helpful again and again and again. You may indeed be right about the prednisone.

Do let us know what happens. I'm impatiently :) waiting, lol.

Hi Diane,

Thank you for responding to my question.

As of today, I am now 10 days late, and still have absolutely no sign of my period coming. After going back over my notes (I have recently started charting everything in my cycle for the past couple of months), I also note that I was on a short course of prednisone in November, which from what I have read can throw some women's cycles slightly off-track... my December period was also considerably lighter and of shorter duration than normal for me, which leads me to believe it was the prednisone playing up.

As for the mini-pill, there was a few days when the pill was taken outside of the specified timeframe, the latest being 12hrs late during December, so there is every possibility that I did ovulate at the "required" time, resulting in mid-cycle bleeding. I have been on the mini-pill this time around for approx. 8mths, and during this time, I have never experienced any abnormal bleeding or spotting before.

The doxycycline taken in December was only taken for a mild case of tonsilitis due to my allergy to penicillins, so I don't think that would have placed any undue stress on my body. Additionally, there has been no other emotional, psychological or other stresses during this time... so I'm still trying to figure out the cause for this tardiness, although not stressing over it lol!

The only thing I do note is that I do have some symptoms of pregnancy that have been happening over the past 2-3 weeks, the worst being excessive fatigue, headaches, nausea and tingling breasts - but I am aware these are also common during PMS or illness (although I generally do not have these symptoms of PMS) - so who knows, only a test will give me a definitive answer!

I've decided to wait until I am 2 weeks late (if I get there!) to take another HPT, and will probably consult a doctor at this stage too, regardless of the results, just to get a full check-over to make sure everything is ok.

Thanks very much for your help, and I will keep you updated as soon as events unfold!

Hi, ConcernedAU,

Welcome to EmpowHER, and thanks so much for your post. Let's see if we can help a little.

First, the minipill is 96-99.5 percent effective when used as instructed. From what you write, my first instinct is that you were protected all four times you had sex. As long as you didn't miss your pills, and it doesn't seem like you did, there shouldn't have been a problem.

Antibiotics CAN weaken the effectiveness of the pill, and so it's often recommended that people use a backup method of birth control (a condom, for instance) to be absolutely sure. However, your antibiotics began three days AFTER your last sexual intercourse, and so that wouldn't have had any effect on your protection.

The mid-cycle bleeding: Is this a rarity, or does it come and go with you? Some women do have breakthrough bleeding on the pill. That in itself also isn't something that would worry me too much. It is possible that you ovulated then (though the pill should prevent that) and that this was about when it happened.

And yeah, that home pregnancy test that got dropped in the toilet? Let's ignore that.

My gut instinct is that you are just late, mostly likely due to a combination of stress from the month of December and by whatever condition caused you to need antibiotics. Six days late is not that huge, even in women who are regular. Stress can mess with all our hormones. If you are very nervous about it, do another HPT -- carefully this time, LOL -- and see if the results are still negative.

If you want to check the consumer info for Microlut, here's a link:

http://www.femalelife.co.nz/scripts/products/microlut/index.php

Will you come back and update us? I'm betting you get your period in the next few days.