Missed doses of Tri-Sprintec

[leaveittoweaver.livejournal.com]

So despite having an alarm set on my phone, I managed to miss Thursday and Friday's pill. I'm on Tri-sprintec and take my pill at 10pm everynight. I missed Thursday and Friday and the instructions say " If the patient misses two (2) active tablets in Week 1 or Week 2, the patient should take two (2) tablets the day she remembers and two (2) tablets the next day; and then continue taking one (1) tablet a day until she finishes the pack.".(The ones I missed are in week two). So I'm not sure if I understand these instructions, do I take Thursday and Friday's pills today and then Saturday and Sunday tomorrow? 

Should I be using back up bc? I've been taking it religiously otherwise.

EDIT: Also wanted to add that according to My Monthly Cycles I was last fertile on the 25th. and won't be fertile again until December 19th. How accurate are these calendars if I have a very normal cycle? 

Thanks!

Comments

[archangelbeth]

Yes, take Thursday's and Friday's today, and Saturday's and Sunday's tomorrow. (Or you could take Thursday's and Saturday's today, and Friday's and Sunday's tomorrow, if that'd make more sense. It's basically, "take 2 pills the first day you remember, and 2 pills the day after, then go back to one a day.")

I'd use backup contraception for at least a few days, and expect spotting as the hormone-drop makes the uterus wonder if it's time for a bleed.

I hope that's useful to you!

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

I would check the booklet that came with your pills for guidance. Most brands recommend using back-up for seven days after two missed pills; some guidelines from Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, in conjunction with the WHO, have found that you can miss up to four pills in the second week and not require back-up protection, but that's quite a lot more liberal than any pill pamphlet. (The primary risk of missed pills is how close it is to the hormone-free week, as the hormone-free days combined with any missed pills can increase the risk of ovulation.)

Whether or not it takes longer to ovulate if pills are missed depends more on the individual than on how long you've been on it, to my knowledge. Some bodies ovulate quite promptly after stopping HBC, or if pills are missed; others won't ovulate for literally months after stopping HBC, and aren't at much risk of breakthrough ovulation. Since there's no way to know how your individual body reacts, the best bet is usually to assume you are at risk of ovulation if you miss X number of pills.

Cycle tracking sites such as MyMonthlyCycles.com are actually quite useless when you're on hormonal birth control. You don't have a menstrual cycle, so you don't have a "fertile" period; if a breakthrough ovulation occurs on HBC, it may not necessarily occur when one would expect it to on a natural menstrual cycle, it would occur when hormone levels dropped too low, too long to stop it from happening. So the calendars quite seriously tell you nothing.

Long story short: standard advice would suggest using back-up contraception for seven days, to be on the safe side.