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Contraception

Remembering to take your pill

The pill is most effective at preventing pregnancy when you take it at the same time every day. Check out our top tips for remembering to take the pill.

Forgetting to take your pill is a common reason for the pill failing. For the pill to work effectively at preventing unwanted pregnancy, you need to remember to take it as directed.

When experts talk about the effectiveness of contraception, they talk about perfect use and typical use.

Perfect use

This is when someone follows the instructions that come with a contraceptive method perfectly. By doing this, their chances of getting pregnant are much lower.

Typical use

This is a more realistic view of how people use contraception, and reflects the fact that people will make mistakes. With typical use, people are more likely to get pregnant.

With perfect use, the contraceptive pills are 99% effective at preventing pregnancy, however with typical use this is more like 91%.

A great way to help you achieve perfect use is to form a habit to help you remember to take your pill.

  • Progestogen-only/POP pill: this has to be taken within a 3 or 12 hour window, depending on the pill
  • Combined pill:  it is less important to stick to a time window, but you do need to remember to take it daily

Setting reminders

The simplest thing that you can do to help you remember to take your pill is to set a daily reminder on your phone. This could just be an alarm but you there are also apps that are designed to give you pill reminders.

Set it for a time that you know your phone will be near you and you’ll have your pills with you – for example, half an hour after your morning wake-up alarm.

Forming habits

To get into the habit of taking your pill every day:

  1. Take your pill when you’re normally in the same place, doing the same thing (like getting into bed, or brushing your teeth).
  2. Keep your pill in the place where you will take it (such as next to your toothbrush, by your bed, next to your phone or glasses).

Dealing with a change of routine

You might still forget to take your pill if your routine changes, for example if you’re away from home, staying with a friend or a partner or on holiday.

Here are some tips to help you remember in these cases:

  • Put your pill in a place where you will have it with you and will see it (for example, in your bag or next to your phone).
  • When you unpack, put your pill where you plan to take it (such as next to your toothbrush).
  • If you don’t have your pill on you, set a reminder on your phone to take it as soon as you get home.
  • Try to stick to the same routine (for example when you brush your teeth).
  • Tell the person you’re with to remind you – the act of telling someone else often helps you remember yourself
  • It can also help to always have a spare pack of pills with you in your bag. That way, if you’re not at home, you can still take it.

Dealing with a time difference

Even when you’re in a different time zone, it’s important to take your pill at the same time of day as you normally would at home.

This means that if you take it in the morning when you’re at home, you might have to take it in the evening when you’re away (when it’s morning in the UK). If your holiday destination is only one or two hour’s difference from the UK, you shouldn’t need to worry. However, if you’re travelling long haul, you need to consider when to take your pill.

Before you go, work out what time it will be when you’re on holiday, when you usually take your pill at home. For example, if you normally take your pill at about 8am in the UK, and you’re going to be in California, you should take your pill at midnight. This might be quite difficult, but you might want to consider taking your pill just before you go to bed at night.

And remember, if you’re worried, you can always use another method (such as condoms) to make sure that you are protected.

LARC methods

If remembering to take your pill is too much hassle, there are a number of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) that you don’t have to think about again for weeks, months or even years e.g. the injection, the implant, the copper coil and the hormonal coil.

Unsure which contraception method is best for you?
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