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Womens Health > Birth Control Forum > timing flexibility in microgestin fe 1/20 ?
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Q: timing flexibility in microgestin fe 1/20 ?
asked by: roswell07 on June 9th, 2008
New User
Hi I've been taking the pill for 2.5 months and I was just wondering how sensitive it was to the exact timing from day to day. I usually take it at 6pm, but occasionally I'm in a weird place or my phone is off and I don't get the alarm, so I take it a little late, up to around 8pm. Will this affect how well it works, or is there a sort of grace period in the amount of time that it works?

Another thing is that I was wondering if there was any way to be absolutely sure that you haven't ovulated. I just got changed to a different pill for the next cycle because the estrogen in the Microgestin was too low and I wasn't getting a 4 week period cycle (it was previously about 5 weeks long and became about 6 weeks long after I began the pill). My doctor said the pill was still working, I presume because of the progestin, but is it possible to have too little progestin and still be ovulating? I'm paranoid about getting pregnant, so I want to make sure that everything is working right. The 0.3% of pregnancies with perfect usage - what are those caused by? I'm not even using it absolutely perfectly, since I have the aforementioned occasional 2 hour slips...

Final question: Does the pill work that it still works on top of the period cycle? What I mean is, if you miss a pill, is it the case that: a) the timing of the missed pill makes a difference, such that if the pill is missed when you'd normally ovulate, you will ovulate, and if it's missing when you've got your period, you will not... or b) the timing makes no difference, such that the egg is basically waiting to be released, and as soon as you miss a pill it gets released... ?? I want to know if there are still safer days on top of the whole being on the pill thing to not use a condom. Why is it the case that they say if you miss one pill then you can take two the next day? I would never trust that, but I'm curious why it would work...
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Georgia59
replied on June 10th, 2008
Especially eHealthy
No, two hours late won't make a difference. I would worry more about 6 or 12 hours.

There is no way to tell if you have ovulated. Ovulation does sometimes happen, and you can't tell if you have or haven't ovulated. The pill works in other ways, too, and your chance of pregnancy is still less than 1% even if you ovulate. Some pills (mini pills) don't even prevent ovulation at all, and they are still effective.

Theoretically, you have no menstrual cycle while on the pill. So no, it doesn't matter when you have sex, your chances of pregnancy are the same the whole time.The pill works basically by maintaining even hormone levels, and avoiding the ups and downs of your natural cycle. So no hormone changes = no cycle. At the end of the month, when you stop taking the pills, it triggers a change in hormones, which causes a "period." So it doesn't matter when you miss a pill, it just matters that you did miss a pill, because it will trigger the hormone changes that mimic your cycle. Once you miss a pill, you still will not ovulate if you just miss one pill necessarily.

So no, no days are safer than others. The only reason the timing of missing a pill might matter is because if you miss, for example, the pill before your period week, that would be more dangerous because you wouldn't get the hormones to make up for it.

I hope that helped!
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