FAQs

I take the combined pill. Recently I took a course of antibiotics and know that they may reduce the effectiveness of the Pill. How long before I can rely on the Pill again?

Answer

Not all antibiotics affect the Pill but as a rule of thumb and to avoid confusion, we recommend using extra contraception (like condoms) or no penis in vagina sex during the time that you are taking the antibiotic, and then for another seven hormone pills after you finish the course of treatment.

If you have less than seven hormone pills left in your pack, continue to take the remaining pills in the pack, skip the placebo or 'dummy' pills and continue straight on with hormone pills in a new pack still using extra contraception until seven hormone pills in a row have been taken.

Then you could take your placebo pills and have a bleed if you want to, or you could just continue on until the end of that pill packet.

If you are taking a triphasic pill and you find that you need to skip the placebo or 'dummy' pills because you are on a course of antibiotics, see: http://www.fpnsw.org.au/sex-matters/faq/COCP9_20080429.html. Triphasic pills have three different doses of pills in the packet eg Triphasil/Trifeme/Triquilar/Logynon.