My girlfriend missed a day on the pill yesterday. She took two today, but she has gotten her period… Which wasn’t due until Wednesday of the next week. This was today. Starting wednesday (the 15th) she’s supposed to have the standard week-long pause for her period… But that probably won’t happen. She’s freaking out, and apparently it’s basically impossible to contact her gynecologist. She will get new pills before next wednesday (when hers run out). What’s the right course of action? Can this be salvaged without waiting a month for her next period?
There’s not even a 24/7 nurse line? That surprises me.
On the other hand, if the OBGYN is just a pain to get to or they’re booked for non-emergency appointments for the next 3 months, that definitely doesn’t surprise me.
Also, I’m a dude, and in an effort to not make a useless comment, what does the box the pills came in say?
The manufacturer may have a nurse line you can call, or her pharmacist may have some advice.
I am not a doctor, but my guess is that she will be told to throw the rest of this cycle of pills away and start anew at the appropriate time. Which would mean that there WILL be a gap in effectiveness.
Condoms. Don’t take chances. 
Have her contact her pharmacist. They’re very well educated about the proper use of medication, including OBC.
relax, at least it didn’t not come!! 
just have her start the green pills now (or whichever ones the pack tells her to take while she is having her period, ie the placebo pills with no hormones and tehn start the new pack… unless she is not having a full perios but is only spotting in shich case a preg test is a wise thing to do… jic… a woman can have slight spotting (usually nothing like a full on period) if an egg implanted…hehe not to scare you worse. either way you won;t be the first or the last!!!
I’ve heard if the guy takes two an hour or so before sex it prevents pregnancy. Good luck!
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
by salvaged do you mean “is there some nonprocreative sex we can have”?
What?! That’s terrible advice! Is this a joke or something?
She should go ahead and start the placebos, and talk to either her pharmacist or her gynecologist when she can to get back on track.
Is she on a monthly period? Or every three months?
Here is some info about missed pills.
If it were me, I’d just take two the next day and then continue on, spotting or not, and use a back-up method for however long (this link says 7 days).
There is no panic.
Stuff ups with taking the contraceptive pill daily are the number one correlated issue (one might call that a cause ) to pregnancy when using the contraceptive pill as the contraceptive strategy. When the cycle is haywire its impossible to know when ovulation occurs.
When you take the contraceptive pill, and there is something unusual, or just forget (or couldn’t) take the pill daily, consider it useless as a contraceptive for a while.
You’re going to be using rubbers for at least a month, if not longer. Sorry, man… I’ve been there. 
There’s always anal.
Dare I say… whoosh?
A lot depends on what sort of pills she’s on. Missing a day on the progesterone-only pills is totally different from missing a day on combined hormone pills (and AIUI missing a day on monophasic combined pills is different from missing a day on the triphasic ones.) The monophasic combined pills I used to take, it wasn’t a huge deal to miss one pill. It said right on the package insert to just take two the next day. If you missed two, you took two a day for two days and used condoms for a week, if it was three you took two a day for three days and used condoms for a month, if you missed four, you scrapped that pack entirely, started a new one, and used condoms for a month.
But progesterone-only pills don’t have nearly that sort of flexibility–they have lowered effectiveness if you don’t take them at the same time every day, much less miss days. Monkeying with them can also cause breakthrough bleeding–I had a decent bit of that when I first got my progesterone IUD. She may not be having a period at all, and can just keep on using the same pack of pills with condoms as a back-up until she starts the next pack.
If she can’t get in touch with her doctor, she needs to read her package insert–it’s probably available online if she’s thrown it away. It will have a FAQ about this particular pill, and the number one FAQ will be “Oh shit, I missed a pill. Now what?”
You guys need to use condoms until a health care professional tells you it’s okay to discontinue them. Unless you want to be parents, and I assume since she’s on the pill you don’t, THIS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE.
Finally, she needs to familiarize herself with the protocols for missing a pill (or two or three) for the next time this happens. Because there will be a next time. Believe me, there will. Pretty much every single woman who has ever taken the pill in the entire history of chemical contraception has missed more than one dose. If she’d made herself familiar with these protocols before, you guys wouldn’t have to freak out now–it’s worth the ten minutes it takes to look that stuff over to save yourself another freak out down the road.
Yes. Calm down. Check the packaging, as others have said. Mine has a handy-dandy flowchart for what to do if I miss a pill, what week I missed it, what happened after and so on.
Use condoms until she starts her next pill cycle, the pharmacist or the package the pills come in should make it clear of she is protected right away, or if you need to wait another week. (And no whining. Sexually active people need to fall back on condoms every once in a while. Happens to everybody who has sex involving penises, and some of those who don’t).
If you had unprotected sex right before this happened, I’d consider a morning-after pill, if they are available OTC where you are.
If I remember correctly, you are quite young? How old is the girl? Wonky periods are parr for the course in young women, and some pill types bring on menstruation when you discontinue using them.
There’s always abortion, its the eraser on your pregnancy-scare pencil!
God I hope so! School hasn’t started back yet, there’s probably a bunch of “How is babby formed” types reading this kind of shit.
Not to scare you, but I had a very similar experience about 5.5 years ago. My son will be 6 in March. There is a percentage of females who are prone to “implantation bleeding”, which can have symptoms of a normal period. I’d suggest picking up a cheap pregnancy test, then if it’s negative, just wait it out and start the pills over once this period ends.
However, do take this with a grain of salt, as noted above, my experience with birth control kinda didn’t exactly go as planned, ya know?