Can antibiotics affect birth control pills?
Birth control pills can be affected by certain antibiotics, making the Pill less effective and increasing your chances of pregnancy. Mid-cycle bleeding (spotting) may be the first sign that an antibiotic is interacting with the effectiveness of your birth control pills.
Antibiotics that have been shown to interact with birth control pills include:
- rifampin (brand name Rifadin)
- penicillin (Veetids)
- amoxicillin (Amoxil)
- ampicillin (Omnipen)
- cotrimoxazole (Septra or Bactrim)
- tetracycline (Sumycin)
- minocycline (Minocin)
- metronidazole (Flagyl)
- nitrofurantoin (Macrobid or Macrodantin)
If you are using birth control pills and need to take an antibiotic, doctors generally recommend the use of a condom or spermicide as a back-up during and for a least one week after to help avoid your chances of pregnancy while taking the antibiotic. It's recommended to follow this routine - use the pill, back-up method, and antibiotics together - as opposed to stopping the pill while taking antibiotics and restarting the following month. When you stop and restart it can cause unnecessary readjustment for your body.
While the "how" and "why" of antibiotics interfering with birth control pills is still unclear, with interferences only happening a few times, don't take any chances. Always use a back-up method.
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posted by BirthControlBuzz @ 9:44 AM
3 Comments:
I know that antibiotics can affect birth control pills, but what about Mirena? I have been using it for 3 years with no problems, but after taking antibiotics about 6 weeks ago, I am having pregnanacy symptoms. Any information?
What information I could find showed that antibiotics do not affect Mirena..But having said that you should still take a pregnancy test to be on the save side. Here's a link for further information (it's a bit scientific). Note points #5 and #6.
http://www.guideline.gov/summary/summary.aspx?ss=15&doc_id=7286&nbr=4339
Hopefully this helps.
p.s. "levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system" refers to the IUD
I have a question about birth control. In the 90's, I did birth control for about 5 years and it took me over a year to get pregnant with my second child. I also took antibiotics several times during those years. Now my sister in law said, she got pregnant before she got married because of an antibiotic this also happen in the 90's. I was under the understanding that back then the pill were so strong that it took a while for it to wear out. What are the adds here?
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