When to start your birth control pills
Birth Control Advice : How to Start the Birth Control Pill
hi I'm Christina Kamali I'm a nurse
midwife with Planned Parenthood and I'd
like to talk to you about how to start
your birth control pills if you've been
prescribed birth control pills follow
the instructions your healthcare
provider gave you if you don't have
instructions from your health care
provider the right time to start your
birth control pills is anytime you know
you're not pregnant for many women this
will mean at the beginning of a
menstrual period but some women need to
start their birth control pills between
two menstrual periods and that's fine as
long as you know you're not pregnant if
you haven't had unprotected sex since
your last period it's a great time to
start if you have you should do a
pregnancy test before starting your
pills and only start your pills if your
pregnancy test is negative this method
of starting birth control pills is known
as a QuickStart it's been well studied
and it's medically safe there's no
medical reason to wait until your next
period when you start the birth control
pills this way in the middle of your
cycle it will take seven days for them
to become effective so please use a
backup method of birth control for the
first seven days when you're ready to
start your birth control pills pick the
time of day that you can easily remember
a pill every day this may be the morning
this may be the evening there's no
perfect time of day to take your birth
control pills just the time of day that
will be easiest for you to remember when
you go to take your first birth control
pill identify which pills are the
hormone pills and which pills are the
placebo or non hormone pills the first
pill in the pack is usually the one on
the top left if you're using a square
pack of birth control or the top of the
circle for a circular pack of birth
control pop the pill out of the blister
pack and swallow it
and take another fill this next day the
exact same way you go on like this
taking one pill a day every day no
matter what happens take a pill whether
you're bleeding or not in the order they
come in the pack never skip around in
the pack after you've finished all the
active fills in the pack you can take
the inactive placebo pills we expect you
to get a period sometime during this
week it may not start right away and it
may not last the whole week and that's
fine after you finish your placebo pills
it's time to start your next pack of
pills the very next day it's important
to start your next pack of pills on time
because starting a pack late is a
primary way that people become pregnant
while using the birth control pills if
you have any questions about using your
birth control pills talk to your
healthcare provider and remember that
birth control pills don't protect
against sexually transmitted infections
