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Dr. Jim Shelton's Pearls "Pearl" for the week of December 16, 2004

More on Missed Pills

I'm glad to see the new simplified guidance on missed 30-35 microgram pills that gives the main message of "Just keep going." But it seems to me that a woman would still have several options in terms of how to proceed and what to do with the missed pills. For example, if a woman misses two pills in the middle of the pack and remembers the next morning after that, should she:

A. Discard the two pills and keeping going with the next pill in sequence so that she stays on "schedule"?

B. Not discard any pills, but just keep taking them one a day, so that her cycle is extended 2 days?

C. Take a pill as soon as she remembers and then another one later at her "regular time" and discard the one extra pill so she stays on schedule?

D. Take a pill as soon as she remembers and then another one later at her "regular time" and use the extra pill 1 day, so her cycle is extended by 1 day?

The beauty of the current guidance is that any of these is OK. The key point is "Just keep going."

The "Pearls" offer answers to commonly asked questions about family planning. These "Pearls" are prepared by Dr. James D. Shelton, Senior Medical Scientist, Office of Population, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government or The Johns Hopkins University.