I am currently taking a contraceptive pill. If I were one of the 3% who actually became pregnant unknowingly and continued taking it, could this effect the health or development of the child?
Yes, it could.
You must take the pill exactly as described on the packaging, and even then, it could happen.
Danger is real. I’m sure a Doper with medical expertise will be in here shortly to scare the shit out of you.
Just read the package insert from start to finish.
That should be enough to convince you to monitor yourself closely.
Don’t make yourself paranoid, the Pill is safe for most women that use it, but do be aware of any changes you go through, because they could be significant.
And talk to your doctor if you are concerned.
IIRC, there isn’t that much risk assuming that you cease taking the pill if you suspect/discover that you are pregnant. At the MOST, this is a three-week period, since, in theory, your period will be different/absent, etc, when you switch to the placebo pills.
A pregnancy test will still tell you if you are pregnant even if you are taking the pill, since it tests for the presence of (I think) HGH (human grown hormone), which is only produced during pregnancy, barring any type of hormonal imbalance.
Many decades ago, my mother became pregnant while on the Pill (you have to understand that my mother ALWAYS follows the medicine-taking instructions to the LETTER).
Since she didn’t know she was pregnant, she continued taking the Pill.
It killed the child, which she then miscarried.
This was, to put it mildly, very upsetting.
By the way, mnemosyne, what you’re thinking of is NOT human growth hormone, which is produced throughout life in both females AND males, and is most certainly not restricted to pregnant women. But tests do detect the hormonal changes that occur with pregnancy.
depends on the type of pill.
depends on the dose of hormones etc etc.
i’m taking an anti-androgen like progesterone (cyteprone acetate, i think) which is teratogenic (will cause birth defects-mainly feminisation of male embryos), so i KNOW i can’t carry any pregnancy to term.
if you’re on a low-dose type there is probably not much risk of birth defects, if you don’t run packets together regularly.
if you don’t get your period do a test anyway, it picks up HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) and as mentioned before will still be positive if you’re on the pill.
essentially, don’t worry, or use condoms too, and worry less.
There is very little likelihood that taking the pill while pregnant could affect early development. Fears about this are based on early pills which had much higher hormone levels than the ones you are taking.
Another thing that makes people nervous is that doctors often suggest that you wait a few cycles after stopping the pill before trying to conceive. I was informed, however, that this is more for the purpose of accurately dating conception than because of any lingering hormone effects.
I thought that 3% failure rate was based on “real-life” use–in other words, women who missed a pill (or more), or weren’t consistent about taking it at the same time of day. I read somewhere that if you take it “perfectly,” the percent failure is more like 1%.
But I suppose it depends on what type of pill your taking. Definately a situation where YMMV.
HCG - HGH - I was half right in remember that the abreviation had an H and a G in it 
There seems to be no increased risk of congenital malformations developing in babies whose mothers were using oral contraceptives when they (the babies) were conceived. This study relates to general malformations, and this one to malformations of the baby’s sexual development.