Contraception - Microgynon

[yougottabelieve.livejournal.com]

I have a bit of a question about Microgynon 30 (Combined Pill - clarifying this as I don't know if they use it in the US).

I had run two packs together, and was 2 days into the new pack. I went home from uni on Saturday morning to visit my boyfriend for the weekend and ended up forgetting to bring my pills with me. I spoke to a pharmacist who told me I wasn't protected (which surprised me, I'd thought I would have been since I ran 2 packs together, and so had more than 21 active pill days - surely I could have gone on the 7 day break?)

I voiced my concerns/what I'd thought but she assured me I wasn't protected, so me and the BF used condoms.

I just wanted to clarify that this is correct (because I'm pretty certain it's not!) and also ask what I do now I am back - in total I only missed 2 pills, so I just did what the pamphlet said and took today's pill plus one of the pills I missed - should I take BOTH the pills I missed, take the other missed pill tomorrow or just ignore it? When will I be protected again (If I wasn't before?)

Thanks guys!

Comments

[archangelbeth]

If you followed the 21/7 rule (no fewer than 21 days of active pills, no more than 7 without), your pharmacist must be misunderstanding. You'd be clear to take a 7 day break any time after the 21st pill. However, you will need to make sure that you take 21+ active pills before your next 7-day break.

Does that help?

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Pharmacists here will almost never advise about off-label usage of any drug. As the OP's situation (as average as it is in practice) is technically off-label the pharmacist will have entered CYA mode.


Actually, as I found out from hundreds of worried people all over the UK (when I did this for a living) pharmacists virtually *always* say "You're not covered - use backup" when giving BC advice. I think it'll be for reasons of liability.

[archangelbeth]

*sigh* I suppose that makes sense. Bit of a shame that they can't give the "if you have to ask, use backup protection, but in theory..." line. O:/

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

It annoys me too, along the lines of prescribers who advise users that "BC brand X takes [anything over 7 days] to become effective" because, to me anyway, it taints the rest of their advice.

People here are encouraged to use pharmacies for medical advice, but if they're just going to dish out arse-covering medical platitudes then it's pointless, you know? Yes, of course the majority of people needing advice will need standard issue "Does A interact with B?" or "How much paracetamol (acetaminophen) can an adult take in 24 hours?" type of stuff, but people are not made in factories with set configs.

We've been fighting our local pharmacist for 4 years over fluconazole (one dose YI tablet) of all things. We call him the 'P*ssy Police'.

As two women in a sexual relationship, if one gets a YI we both do. We also both have chronic conditions that lower our immunity, and mean we frequently require antibiotics. Usually if you're ill enough to need antibiotics, you're ill enough to make the mental connection "Oh shit I'll get a yeastie, better ask for an rx of fluconazole." Oh and she's the only one who drives, as I'm too gimped up and rarely leave the bed, let alone the house, so she does all of our prescription pick-ups and OTC med buying.

This pharmacist honestly seems to keep a mental log of when women buy fluconazole. Yes I know that frequent YIs out of NOWHERE can signal things like diabetes, or the acquisition of HIV, and that apparent YIs can actually be nastier things, so there's a limit of 2x OTC fluc. per woman per year as a *general* rule, but PPP (P*ssy Police Pharmacist) is a "rules is rules" guy. The two other pharmacists, and the technicians, are happy to take a history and use their judgement of us as *gasp* individual people, because the 'two doses a year' thing is a guideline, not a concrete ruling from the Drug Lords of Above. Not him though...

It got to the point of my lovely, sweet, calm little Lisa screaming "We're women, women with vaginas, who have sex with each other. Of COURSE I need two doses. Should we split a dose? You WOULD say 'See your GP' because you're not the one with the raw, itchy [expletive deleted] who'll have to wait two weeks for an appointment."

Now it's easier to ask my mother to buy it and travel 25 miles to get it, or make a pre-emptive strike and ask McFab GP for a spare to keep in the bathroom cabinet. Kind of defeats the object of the concept of OTC really!

[archangelbeth]

...when we do the glitter-purple bus tour to kick "take HBC and go away" butts, we can totally detour to kick that pharmacist. What a... misogynistic flaming dungpile. O:p

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

YES! I never even thought about including pharmacists on that!

He's the same pharmacist that insisted (on roughly 5 separate occasions) that me and Lisa could not take... oh can't remember, some kind of painkiller, because "You're diabetic.". Now I think I'd have remembered that, don't you? I said "Ah, you've seen metformin on my list of drugs, but I'm not diabetic, it's to help with my PCOS". To which PPP replied "Nope, diabetic. If you take metformin you're diabetic". I just stood there open-mouthed. Luckily the 16 year old assistant piped up and said "Actually Paul, we have lots of women with PCOS using metformin." Can you believe he actually stomped off?

Women, daring to know their own bodies and have drug knowledge? Bleeeurgh. Aren't there kitchens for them to be in?

Sorry, sorry, still sidetracking the thread...

[archangelbeth]

*headdesk* I don't suppose there's an association of pharmacists you could complain to? Or that he works at a chain where you could go over his head? (I got good results from complaining about much more trivial stuff that my pharmacy was doing that was annoying...)

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Ooh, can the purple glitter bus come here? I have some pharmacy techs (fortunately, no pharmacists) who need some foot-to-glute behavior intervention. (The one who was alarmed that I was switching HBC every ~4 months and was therefore "drug-seeking." The one who erroneously filled my refill for Percocet and not for Tylenol 3 and proceeded to argue with me that I could not have both as I was trying to explain that I just wanted the T3. Etc.)

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Ask for the bus and it shall come. Drug seeking? Are you some entirely new stage of humanity that can get high off synthetic hormones? Homo Torius Hormonsnortus!

[blissery.livejournal.com]

That pharmacist is horrible. Good thing your Lisa managed to scream at him.

[yougottabelieve.livejournal.com]

Yes it does, thank you very much :)

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Yes you're right, any more than 21 active pills means you can safely take a break of up to seven days. Pharmacists can only really go 'by the book' and give advice on meds that pertains to usage as directed by the patient info leaflet. The pharmacist was covering their arse :D

You're still protected.

[yougottabelieve.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hooray!