Nuvaring and Heat

[jordanjunior.livejournal.com]

I left my laptop on top of next month's ring for a couple of hours (3??). If it had been "asleep" I wouldn't be worried but it was on the whole time and it gets pretty hot. When I found it I immediately put it in the fridge/

My question:
They are activated by heat I know, but how sensitive is this? Am I being paranoid? When talking to the doctor a few months ago she mentioned that Planned P will send you your prescriptions but that they feel weird about sending the 'ring in the summer because of the heat... if they were even worried about it being outside during heat then it seems like direct prolonged heat is certainly something to worry about. Financially getting a new one is not really an option. If I just used condoms for a month and the hormones in the ring were messed up would skipping a month of hormones impact me negatively? This is actually many questions. 

I searched here for "nuvaring heat" and didn't find anything... surely someone else has had a similar problem though? 

Comments

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

Well...I am not a doctor, so this is just a guess. But the thing about heat is that it causes the ring to start releasing hormones. So the amount of hormones in the ring would be less than usual. I would tend to think it wouldn't be HUGELY less, but then the manufacturer does tell you not to rinse it in hot water, so I'm not sure.

In any case, using condoms is certainly an option. What it would do to you to skip a month of hormones really depends on your individual chemistry...but it would be perfectly fine to use the ring in conjunction with condoms. It likely still has enough hormones to regulate your body, even if you shouldn't necessarily rely on it for birth control. I think that would be a cautious and perfectly reasonable course of actoin.

[jocelina.livejournal.com]

What atalanta0jess said above seems very sensible to me. Because it's impossible to say (without complicated chemical analysis that would destroy your ring anyway) how much of the original hormones are left and if that amount will be sufficient to prevent ovulation, it's probably advisable to err on the side of caution and use a backup method until you've had a new, unimpaired ring in for seven days. But (as Jess said) you could probably use the ring to keep your cycle on track during that month while you're using the ring that got a bit cooked.

I think that's what I would do, if I were in your shoes. Skipping a month of hormones isn't going to be harmful, but it might throw your cycles out of whack to the extent that your next few cycles would be wonky, and that can be irritating.

[jordanjunior.livejournal.com]

Yes! I like this plan too. Thank you for the sound advice.