If You Miss A Pill

To best prevent pregnancy, it's important to take your pill at the same time every day. To help you remember, try linking "pill time" to something you routinely do each day, like brushing your teeth. This way, taking your pill can become second nature.

Be sure to print and keep this guide so you’ll know what to do if you forget to take your pill.

What do I do if I miss 1 pill?

  • Take the missed pill as soon as you remember.
  • THEN, take the next pill at your regular time. This means you may take 2 pills in 1 day.
  • You COULD BECOME PREGNANT if you have sex during the 7 days after you restart your pills. You MUST use a nonhormonal birth control method (such as condoms and/or spermicide) as a backup for those 7 days.

What do I do if I miss 2 pills and remember on the day of the second missed pill?

  • Take 2 missed pills on the day you remember. The following day, you will be back on schedule to take 1 pill a day.

    For example, you usually take your pills in the morning, and you missed 1 pill on Monday and 1 on Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, you remember that you missed your Monday and Tuesday pills. You take the 2 missed pills on Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday morning, you’re back on schedule and you take 1 pill at the usual time.
  • You COULD BECOME PREGNANT if you have sex during the 7 days after you restart your pills. You MUST use a nonhormonal birth control method (such as condoms and/or spermicide) as a backup for those 7 days.

What if I miss 2 pills and remember on the day after the second pill is missed?

  • Take 2 missed pills on the day you remember. The next day, you take 2 pills. The following day, you are back on schedule to take your pills.

    For example, you usually take your pills in the morning, and you missed 1 pill on Monday and 1 on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, you remember that you missed your Monday and Tuesday pills. You take the 2 missed pills on Wednesday morning and 2 pills on Thursday morning at the usual time. On Friday morning, you’re back on schedule and you take 1 pill.
  • You COULD BECOME PREGNANT if you have sex during the 7 days after you restart your pills. You MUST use a nonhormonal birth control method (such as condoms and/or spermicide) as a backup for those 7 days.

What if I miss 3 or more pills?

  • Contact your health care professional for further advice. Keep taking one pill every day until you reach your health care professional. Do not take the missed pills.
  • You COULD BECOME PREGNANT if you have sex during the 7 days after you restart your pills. You MUST use a nonhormonal birth control method (such as condoms and/or spermicide) as a backup for those 7 days.
Freedom lady laying in the grass.

Important Safety Information

  • The Pill does not protect against HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.

  • Unscheduled bleeding or spotting is likely to occur while you are taking LYBREL. The convenience of having no regular menstrual periods should be weighed against the inconvenience of unscheduled or unplanned breakthrough bleeding and spotting.

  • Some women should not use the Pill, including women who have blood clots; breast, uterine, or liver cancers; a history of heart attack, stroke, or breast cancer; as well as those who are or may be pregnant.

  • Serious risks associated with the Pill which can be life threatening, include blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks and are increased if you smoke cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking increases the risk of serious adverse effects on the heart and blood vessels from oral contraceptive use, especially if you are over 35. Women who use the Pill are strongly advised not to smoke.

  • LYBREL provides women with more hormonal exposure on a yearly basis (13 additional weeks of hormone intake per year) than conventional cyclic oral contraceptives containing the same strength of synthetic estrogens and similar strength of progestins.

  • Because regular monthly bleeding does not occur on LYBREL, it may be difficult to recognize if you get pregnant. If you suspect that you may be pregnant, or if you have symptoms of pregnancy such as nausea/vomiting or unusual breast tenderness, you should have a pregnancy test and you should contact your health care professional.

  • The most common side effects reported with LYBREL in a clinical trial were headache, menstrual cramps, upper respiratory infection, vaginal bleeding, and nausea.