Some questions about birth control pills

I was watching TV and saw a commercial for a birth control patch in which the main selling point is not having to remember to take a pill every day. I remembered back to health class in jr. high when our teacher told us that most of the pills in a birth control packet were placebos that are included to make the taking of pills a daily routine, lest it be forgotten when it counts, and that there were only several pills per month with active ingredients. So my questions are as follows: is/was (may have changed since then) my health teacher correct? If so are the active pills marked differently from the placebos so that if one were to miss a day they could check and see that it was only a placebo, or similarly one would notice an important day coming up?

mine were green for the placebos, and three different shades of peach for the active weeks.

ETA: different manufacturers may use a different color scheme, mine were Ortho Novum.

... so you wouldn't 'lose your place' from cycle to cycle. They are usually different colored, and generally are the 'last pills' in the pack (ie, days 23 thru 30 of the month).

Your HS Health teacher needs to get their ass into a different career field.

:hippie:

I wasn't paying very close attention, seeing as BCPs are not for me.

In a 28-pill packet, there are 21 active pills and 7 placebos.

I guess having a week of nothing would be confusing to the routine. Are they clearly marked?

Until recently I was on ortho tricyclen. The pills come in packets of 28 pills each. The first 21 pills are hormones in increasing doses (hence the "tri" in tricyclen) and the last 7 pills are placebos, which allows you to have a period.

The actual pills are in varying shades of blue and white, while hte placebos are green.

Basically, it's three weeks on and one week off. I never took the placebos (usually they were green) when I was on them and I NEVER forgot to start up again. If you have something coming up and want to skip your period, you can start up a new pack after 3 weeks as well. The placebo week was always the last week in the pack too.

On a 7 day four week cycle of pills only the last week are placebos. In the old days all the pills in the three weeks of real ones were high strength hormone. Many of them now dial it down as the days go by. First week super strong. Second week medium... and so on.

I've not heard great things about the patch though. Word has it that they fall off pretty easy.

except during the last week I have 2 inert and rest very low dose hormones to keep from bottoming out during PMS. :crazy:

That's the BCP that you only have 4 periods/year.

I am curious about it.

most pills are 21 days of (varying levels of, depending on brand) hormones, followed by a week (during which you get your period) of non-hormone (some step down to a low level or use a different one)

if you only take the active ones you can not get your period. discuss this with your doctor, as everyone is different. This is actually supposed to be better for womancancers because it mimics the being-pregnant-most-of-the-time your body has evolved for

The patch is just a time release hormone that works all week. It goes 3 weeks with, 1 week without. similar to above you could just take it all the time

I'd need an inert patch for the free week. :crazy: I need the consistancy of routine.

You are a good husband cheezus. ;-)

Sidebar: Everytime I see your screen name, I imagine Jesus off somewhere eating Cheetos. LOL!

my wife was on the patch for awhile, but didn't like it very much. it's about the size of one of those skinned knee bandages, and about the same color. she's fairly active, and there were only a few places where it didn't bunch up when she was moving. and by the end of the week the outer edges of thepatch were kinda grody, like a bandaid that had been left on all week.

as for my nick, it's from the old bbs days. Cheezus Christ. I later learned that people couldn't handle the blasphemy of the whole name.

or otherwise stop the pills every month...for most women, it's perfectly safe to take the "real" pills all month and never have periods. Some doctors are enlightened enough to tell women that, but most have this old-fashioned idea that periods are somehow necessary, just because they're "natural." Cancer's natural too, that doesn't mean it's healthy.

Women evolved to have far fewer periods than they do now, between childbearing, nursing, and shorter lifespans. There's some good evidence that having the number of periods most modern women now have DOES cause health issues. If you buy your own pills, buy enough to take them full-time and say goodbye to periods.

I'm not on the pill anymore myself - I had a tubal when I was 31 and don't need birth control anymore - but I never had periods when I was on the pill (and I was on it for 17 years). I'm the only female in my family that hasn't had to have a hysterectomy.