does the pill protect you during your period?

I've recently been put on birth control pills due to irregular periods. This might be a stupid question, but I'm completely new at this and forgot to ask my doctor. I figured some of you ladies could answer it for me.

I'm pretty sure the pill protects you from pregnancy during the entire month, but I just want to make sure before I have sex. Does the pill protect you from pregnancy even if you have sex while on your period? I know that during the time you get your period, you stop taking the pill and take a placebo. So, during this time, are you not protected anymore? I feel pretty ignorant asking this, but I'd just like to make sure from some of the women here who know more than I do. I'm pretty sure the doctor would've warned me if there was a chance, but I'm still curious. Thanks for your answers

 

you are protected during your period. I'd advise you to keep taking even the placebo to keep the pattern of pill-taking continuing. Missing pills is the reason birth control fails (for the most part). It used to be the placebo sometimes had extra iron, but I don't know if that is the case anymore.

 

Thanks for responding to my question. I figured as much, but just wanted to make sure. And yes, the placebos have extra iron and I'll be taking them to maintain the pill-taking pattern

 

huh. 3 years and i've always thought that you were unprotected during the placebos... shows how smart I am eh? Well, dbf will be happy to know.

 

Quite a few of my girlfriends initially thought they weren't protected during the placebo week also. It's a detail that many docs apparently don't go over with their patients. I know I wasn't told about it, but I did a shitload of research on the pill before getting on it so that's how I found out.

 

When you bleed while on the Pill, on the "placebo days" it is not actually a real period. It is Estrogen withdrawal bleeding. And, yes, as long as you took your pill as directed during the month, you are protected.

Beware of "supplemental iron" though. It is very difficult for your liver to process and hard on your circulatory system. If you are not clinically anemic DO NOT take any supplmental iron. All the iron you need is in your food. As you bleed less while on the Pill, real, iron deficeincy anemia is rare.

 

How interesting, I did not know this. Can you tell me more about it? If it's too off-topic you can PM me.

 

The pill causes you not to ovulate. It's my understanding that even w/o the egg travelling through there, your placenta still forms and sheds each month. I could be wrong in this though...

 

Thanks for answering everyone. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one not sure on the subject, although it would've been nice if my doctor had mentioned it to me. I guess I should've thought to ask. So as far as I understand...the pill works by making you stop ovulating all together? So, even though you get your period once a month, there is no egg that can get fertilized? Is that it?


Thanks again for all the responses.

 

Placenta is an organ formed during and only during pregnancy. Endometrium is the lining of the uterus, and yes, a little forms while you are on the pill, but not as much as when you are normally ovulatiing. Womyn who have been on the pill for decades (no you don't have to take a "vacation" from the pill, if you are doing well on it) often bleed very little during their withdrawal days. Mainly because they have little endometrium left to shed, and little to none is being manufactured after years on the Pill.

Hey, lace, I am not sure what you want me to explain. The pill sort of tricks your body into thinking you are pregnant, (not completely, though) by keeping artifically high progesterone and estrogen levels. When the estrogen is withdrawn, the thinner lining of the uterus is shed, but the hormone drops ect are very differnt than with regular menstruation, in which lining shedding is triggered by the egg NOT being implanted, adn the hormones which follow "failure" of egg implantation and egg disintegration. On the pill, the egg doesn't ripen or get into the uterus, so only the homone withdrawal causes the bleeding.

Ain't it grand being a chick?

 

Thanks for all the info Maggie - I can't beleive I was so ignorant about this - I'm usually pretty good at questioning my doc at whats going on with my body.