Birth Control Pill Tip From my Nurse

peanut · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 82 Location: i'm a chi girl

Hi I was just in the doctor today and the nurse told me something I'd never heard about birth control pills, so I thought I'd pass it along. Apparently, antibiotics interact with birthcontrol pills, sometimes rendering the birthcontrol pills USELESS. So, my nurse suggests, if you go on antibiotics while you are on the pill, use a condom until you go off the antibiotics, or risk pregnancy.

who would have thought?
not me.

peanut

brdgt · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 6:08 pm Post subject:

I remember reading that on the drug interactions card with my birth control prescription - yet another reason to not take antibiotics.

udandi · Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 140

brdgt,
my sister, a pharmacist, would applaud you for reading the papers included with your prescriptions! She likes to remind the family that they aren't to be considered scrap paper ;)

stprcsm · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 117 Location: NoVa

you should use a condom for longer than you take the antibiotic becuase many of the newer drugs stay in your body for several days after you stop taking it

textile_fetish · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:22 pm Post subject:

Something else I heard (not to hijack!). . .

My ob/gyn was actually on the news saying how WEIGHT is a very important factor not often considered when BC pills are prescribed, and probably the biggest reason they fail.
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shawneemonkey · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 161

some herbs such as st john's wort can cause havoc with your BCP...

i seem to recall some research several years ago about the effect that grapefruit juice (!) had on the body's ability to absorb BCPs. something about it slowing the estrogen metabolism.

in any case, it's good to get as much info as you can when taking the Pill.
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smachel · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 305 Location: kentucky

drugs can have all kinds of crazy interactions, which is why it is important to tell your doctor what you are taking, even birth control! too many women feel that birth control pills "don't count."

brdgt · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 8:38 pm Post subject:

alterego · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 60 Location: New Haven, CT

You know, I was recently on antibiotics for two weeks, and neither the doctor who prescribed them (and who I told I was on birth control) nor the pharmacist (who filled the antibiotics at the same time that he filled my BC and took the trouble to warn me that if I took two antibiotics at once I would get diarrhea) mentioned this. So that probably means I'm in the clear, right? That not ALL antibiotics interfere with the pill? I'd never heard this before, but after I completed taking the antibiotics, two different girls mentioned it. Then this thread popped up. EEK! That would really suck. Damn you, antibiotics, never again will I let my guard down for you!

knittin_kitten · Joined: 01 Sep 2004 Posts: 108 Location: madison, wi

from what i understand, antibiotics are antibiotics, and they all interact with the pill. my doctor (who's a family practitioner) has said that he's had quite a few patients who were products of pregnancies while their moms were on the pill and on antibiotics!

just protect y'self now, y'hear?

peanut · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 82 Location: i'm a chi girl

it's all of the antibiotics. they forget to tell people, that's why i posted this, i was shocked!

peanut

alterego · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 60 Location: New Haven, CT

That is terrible!!! I actually read the antibiotic info the other night and couldn't find any mention of this; I didn't think to check the pill info.

I'm screwed--literally! Well, too late to do anything now except keep my fingers crossed. Serves me right for abandoning that old stand-by, the pull-out method, in an attempt to be responsible!

Thanks for getting the word out, peanut--I wish I had known this a month ago!

ti · Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 228

Also, just to let you know, weight is a factor for those bc patches, too -- they don't say in the commercials or ads but you have to be less than 190 # for them to work effectively, otherwise the failure percentage drops to 15% eek!

MlleEmily · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 157

For a second there I was like, duh, everyone knows that! but then I remembered how I found out that anti-biotics totally render the pill useless- my exes brother's girlfriend got pregnant that way!

I hadda look at my pill info sheet that came in the packet and it does mention it but it's scary that doctors don't seem to mention it when they're prescribing!

alterego · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 60 Location: New Haven, CT

Yes, it's the whole no warning from doctor, no warning from pharmacist aspect that really alarms me. My friend found out cause her antibiotics had one of those big bright warning stickers on it--I was afforded no such luxury--thanks, Eckerd's!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm fine, but I won't be able to truly relax until my next period, after a full cycle of untampered with BC. In the meantime, my boyfriend has begun to worry that he's sterile!