Unfortunately, you have indeed compromised your protection to some extent. How much? Unknown.
First, you aren't on your period. You're on your withdrawal bleed. This is an important distinction because when you're on HBC, your ovaries are no longer talking to your uterus. On a natural period, your ovaries are least likely to be ovulating. When you are on your withdrawal bleed, the drop in hormones signals the uterus to bleed, but that same drop starts letting your ovaries wake up. If you follow the 21/7 rule, you're protected, but you haven't -- you've gone longer than 7 days without active pills.
(This is why I am always so very pedantic about pill-"periods" not being real periods. They don't behave the same way, potential-for-ovulation-wise. They behave oppositely, and doctors do few people favors by not mentioning this.)
So no, you are not 100% okay. It's impossible to know whether you have particularly perky ovaries or not, so you might ovulate at any moment (or have already done so), or you might take weeks of no-hormones to ovulate. But extending your placebo week like this is one of the riskiest things you can do, ovulation-wise. Further, you had that sex relatively recently, so you can't count on them dying off before you're in ovulation danger; it's possible your vagina was still a hostile area and they didn't live long, but in good conditions, sperm can live up to around 7 days. (One researcher got 10 days in the lab and thinks similar is possible in the wild.)
I'd suggest Plan B if you absolutely positively cannot have any risk of pregnancy in your life. Otherwise, you can play the odds (most people do not ovulate on day 8 or 9 after their placebo week is over) and take 2 pills today and 2 pills tomorrow, and use backup contraception till you've had 7 days of active pills. 19 days after the sex in question, I'd suggest taking a pregnancy test; if you're in the US, Dollar Tree Stores have good ones, according to peeonastick.com, and inexpensive reassurance is always good.
You are probably okay. The odds are against an early ovulation, but you did definitely compromise your protection to some extent.
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Date: 2012-02-22 11:14 am (UTC)First, you aren't on your period. You're on your withdrawal bleed. This is an important distinction because when you're on HBC, your ovaries are no longer talking to your uterus. On a natural period, your ovaries are least likely to be ovulating. When you are on your withdrawal bleed, the drop in hormones signals the uterus to bleed, but that same drop starts letting your ovaries wake up. If you follow the 21/7 rule, you're protected, but you haven't -- you've gone longer than 7 days without active pills.
(This is why I am always so very pedantic about pill-"periods" not being real periods. They don't behave the same way, potential-for-ovulation-wise. They behave oppositely, and doctors do few people favors by not mentioning this.)
So no, you are not 100% okay. It's impossible to know whether you have particularly perky ovaries or not, so you might ovulate at any moment (or have already done so), or you might take weeks of no-hormones to ovulate. But extending your placebo week like this is one of the riskiest things you can do, ovulation-wise. Further, you had that sex relatively recently, so you can't count on them dying off before you're in ovulation danger; it's possible your vagina was still a hostile area and they didn't live long, but in good conditions, sperm can live up to around 7 days. (One researcher got 10 days in the lab and thinks similar is possible in the wild.)
I'd suggest Plan B if you absolutely positively cannot have any risk of pregnancy in your life. Otherwise, you can play the odds (most people do not ovulate on day 8 or 9 after their placebo week is over) and take 2 pills today and 2 pills tomorrow, and use backup contraception till you've had 7 days of active pills. 19 days after the sex in question, I'd suggest taking a pregnancy test; if you're in the US, Dollar Tree Stores have good ones, according to peeonastick.com, and inexpensive reassurance is always good.
You are probably okay. The odds are against an early ovulation, but you did definitely compromise your protection to some extent.
Good luck!