Birth control pills are an essential medication for many women who wish to delay pregnancy until they are ready to start a family. The effectiveness of birth control pills depends on several factors, including taking them at the same time each day and notifying your doctor of any other medications or supplements you take. Certain medications can interfere with birth control pills and decrease their effectiveness, and certain vitamins can do the same. The birth control pills might interfere with vitamin absorption, as well. Always tell your doctor about any vitamins you take before starting on birth control pills. Birth control pills prevent pregnancy by preventing ovulation, which is when an egg is released from a woman's ovary. The pills usually include estrogen and progestin, which are hormones that prevent ovulation. Without an egg being released, pregnancy can't take place, notes the University of Colorado Extension. Because of the delicate hormone balance created with oral contraceptives, certain medications, supplements and vitamins can interfere with the normal function of the birth control pills.
Though most vitamins are safe to take with birth control pills, vitamin C can interfere with them, and the pills themselves can contribute to certain nutritional deficiencies as well. Vitamin C plays a role in the function of your immune system and helps keep your skin, teeth, gums and nerves healthy and working normally. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends not taking vitamin C supplements at all if you also take oral contraceptives. This is because vitamin C can cause your estrogen levels to increase. While the vitamin doesn't necessarily interfere with the normal function of your birth control pills, the pills themselves can interfere with your body's ability to absorb vitamin C. Taking your oral contraceptive and vitamin C supplement several hours apart can reduce this negative effect, but always talk to your doctor beforehand. Taking birth control pills can cause you to store higher levels of certain vitamins, according to Elizabeth Somer, author of "Nutrition for Women: How Eating Right Can Help You Look and Feel Your Best."
For example, women who take oral contraceptives can have higher levels of vitamin A. As a result, taking a supplement that includes vitamin A can lead to toxicity. Though not vitamins, birth control pills can also cause an elevated level of copper and iron, Somer notes. Oral contraceptives can cause you to become deficient in certain vitamins, as well, Somer notes in "Nutrition for Women." One example is vitamin B-6. According to Somer, birth control pills can cause a decreased level of vitamin B-6, which can lead to mood problems. Women who take birth control pills might also be deficient in folic acid and vitamins B-1, B-2 and E. If you're taking birth control pills, talk to your doctor about taking supplements of these vitamins to keep your levels normal and healthy, Somer recommends. Birth Control Pills & Prenatal Vitamins at the Same Time How to Tell If You're Pregnant When You're Taking Birth Control A Pregnancy Test & Birth Control Pills Amoxicillin Effects on Birth Control
Prenatal Vitamins & Depo-Provera How to Take Yaz Birth Control Pills Does Vitamin C Make Birth Control Less Effective? Will Birth Control Pills Lose Their Effectiveness if I Take Vitamin B-6? Birth Control & Muscle Building Bad Side Effects of Depo-Provera How to Get Rid of Water Weight Caused by the Pill Supplements That May Interfere With Birth Control 16 Things You Probably Don't Know About Birth Control Supplements to Take With Birth Control Do Probiotics Affect Birth Control? Losing Weight on Yaz Caffeine & Birth Control Pills 5 Things You Need to Know About Birth Control Pills' Side Effects What to Do If You Throw Up a Birth Control Pill How to Start Birth Control Pills After ChildbirthAs long as you're remembering to take them, it doesn't seem like there would be other things you're doing that mess with birth control, but this is actually not the case. Birth control pills have a pretty high efficacy rate.
We're talking higher than 99 percent with perfect use, according to Planned Parenthood. But perfect use is the key. And perfect use of birth control pills is trickier than you may know. In fact, birth control pills have a reduced typical first-year efficacy rate of 91 percent due to user error, according to Columbia University's Health Services. You may be taking your pill at the same time every day, but there are some other pretty common scenarios that sneakily mess with your birth control. So common, in fact, that you probably don't even know you're doing them. And no shame in your game. You're taking control of your sexual health, even if you're not yet a perfect user. If you're doing any of the following, no need to panic. All you need is a tweak or two to get you back into that 99 percent range. And, as always, when in doubt, call your doctor or the helpful people at Planned Parenthood to get all your birth control questions answered. St. John's Wort, an herbal depression remedy (not confirmed by the FDA), decreases the efficacy of hormonal birth control, according to Brown University's Student Health Services.
If you don't take any supplements, check your teas just to be on the safe side, as they often contain herbal remedies. High doses of Vitamin C won't decrease how well your birth control works, but it can increase the side effects associated with estrogen, such as nausea, headache, and bloating, according to both Elon University and Penn State University's Student Health Services. I'm pretty sure you don't have time for any of that nonsense. According to the University of California, Santa Barbara, several studies out of Harvard examined birth control failure rates and antibiotics and found that most common antibiotics don't significantly increase failure rates. That means you don't have to worry if you get a common illness and take a common antibiotic. However, there is one antibiotic, Rifampin, that has been shown to interfere with birth control, according to the U.S. National Library Of Medicine (NLM), so be on the lookout for that one, and talk to your doctor if you have questions.
"Perfect use" is the industry term for taking your birth control exactly as the instruction label tells you to, according to Young Women's Health. When the pill says it's 99.9 percent effective, they mean with perfect use. Part of perfect use means taking your pill at roughly the same time each day. You have a little bit of leeway there. In fact, according to the student health service department at Brown University, you don't have to consider your pill "missed" unless it's been more than 24 hours after you last took it. Still, taking it irregularly is not perfect use and can decrease the efficacy. If you use progestin-only pills, you only have about a three-hour window, according to Go Ask Alice. If you throw up within two hours of taking your pill, you have to consider that a missed pill, according to the Mayo Clinic. That means you need to time your party hangovers accordingly in order to keep your baby box locked down. And when you miss a pill, in most cases, you take it as soon as you remember or you double up the next day, but check your pill pack instructions or call your doctor if you're unsure of what to do.