nuvaring question...

[sralanism2.livejournal.com]

nuvaring question...
here's the situation:

i'm on nuvaring, and it came out last night during sex (around 11.45pm), the night went on and i forgot to put the ring back in until 3.23am.

so it was out for three hours and thirty eight minutes.

in all the literature for the nuvaring, it says that anything over three hours of the ring being out means that you should use back-up for a week.

fine, i'm ok with that.

my question is this: do you think that, because i had sex last night, and the ring was out for thirty eight minutes longer than it should have been, that my chances of getting pregnant are that much greater?

i have plan B, but i really do not want to take it.

so i'm looking for personal experience -- has anyone left their ring out for a short amount of time over the acceptable amount and had any issues?

thanks so much (and yes, i've posted to the nuvaring lj community, i'm posting here, too because there is a much larger sampling of people).

Comments

[ms-empathy.livejournal.com]

If you're worried about getting pregnant from the sex last night that pushed the ring out, don't be. The 3 hour rule only applies to sex that occurs after the the ring has come out. So you should use backup protection for the next week, but don't take the Plan B for the sex last night.

[dayglow.livejournal.com]

I think you'll be fine. A lot of times people are told only to take a certain dose of medicine or you only have a certain time to do things, when it's actually more lenient than that (in cases like yours). Like with ibuprofen, you're only supposed to take 2 at a time, but I've been told by doctors that I can actually take up to 4 at a time without doing any extra harm to myself. So even though you're TOLD that you only have a 3 hour leeway on the ring, I'd venture it's more like 4+ hours, but it's good to have that 'hidden' leeway.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

The risk is that the ring being out for longer than 3 hours can cause your hormone levels to dip and ovulation to occur. However, any sperm from last night would be long gone by ovulation, if it did occur (which is a minute chance anyway) because sperm dies very, very quickly in an inhospitable vagina (which is a vagina at any time other than peak ovulation).

I don't think you need plan B. Using backup for a week though, not a terrible idea.