I'm glad you have found this site useful; hopefully we can help answer your question as well.
You are right on the border line for whether or not to take emergency contraception (Plan B). Typically, if a woman misses one pill, then takes it as soon as she remembers, the instructions say you do not need to use extra protection (and, thus, Plan B would not be recommended). Typically, if a woman misses two or more pills in-a-row, and has sex during this time, then it is highly recommended that she take Plan B.
Your body was without the synthetic hormones from your pills for 52 hours; 28 additional hours than is recommended (take a pill every 24 hours). It is necessary to double-up on your missed pills, and it would not be harmful if you chose to take Plan B. Since you missed one pill, and then took the next one 4 hour late, it would probably be a good idea to take Plan B, if it is accessible to you, to be on the safe side, and prevent extra worry and concern for the next few weeks until your period begins.
How to double-up on your pills (you may already know this):
Friday: took pill
Saturday: missed pill
Sunday: took Sunday pill late
Monday: take Monday's pill and Saturday's missed pill
Tuesday: pill as usual
Plan B works by preventing pregnancy before it occurs; having sex this morning means you are not pregnant yet (it takes a while for the sperm to join with the egg, then for the fertilized egg to travel down the fallopian tubes and finally implant in the uterus). Your birth control pills prevent the egg from being released in the first place, but you never know if the 52-hour window of no-hormones was enough for your body to ovulate. It's unlikely, but you never know..it is a possibility. Plan B would work to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting (if you did ovulate, and if the sperm did fertilize the egg...a lot of "if's").
I hope this helps; I'm sure it is not the definitive answer you were looking for, but I would tend to err on the side of caution and take Plan B.
Comment Reply
I'm glad you have found this site useful; hopefully we can help answer your question as well.
You are right on the border line for whether or not to take emergency contraception (Plan B). Typically, if a woman misses one pill, then takes it as soon as she remembers, the instructions say you do not need to use extra protection (and, thus, Plan B would not be recommended). Typically, if a woman misses two or more pills in-a-row, and has sex during this time, then it is highly recommended that she take Plan B.
Your body was without the synthetic hormones from your pills for 52 hours; 28 additional hours than is recommended (take a pill every 24 hours). It is necessary to double-up on your missed pills, and it would not be harmful if you chose to take Plan B. Since you missed one pill, and then took the next one 4 hour late, it would probably be a good idea to take Plan B, if it is accessible to you, to be on the safe side, and prevent extra worry and concern for the next few weeks until your period begins.
How to double-up on your pills (you may already know this):
Friday: took pill
Saturday: missed pill
Sunday: took Sunday pill late
Monday: take Monday's pill and Saturday's missed pill
Tuesday: pill as usual
Plan B works by preventing pregnancy before it occurs; having sex this morning means you are not pregnant yet (it takes a while for the sperm to join with the egg, then for the fertilized egg to travel down the fallopian tubes and finally implant in the uterus). Your birth control pills prevent the egg from being released in the first place, but you never know if the 52-hour window of no-hormones was enough for your body to ovulate. It's unlikely, but you never know..it is a possibility. Plan B would work to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting (if you did ovulate, and if the sperm did fertilize the egg...a lot of "if's").
I hope this helps; I'm sure it is not the definitive answer you were looking for, but I would tend to err on the side of caution and take Plan B.
Let us know what you decide!
November 22, 2009 - 7:06pmThis Comment
Reply