Forgetting to Take Femodette

You must remember to take a pill every day in order for the pill to be effective at preventing pregnancy.  If you forget a pill, you may not be protected from pregnancy as you have interrupted the constant flow of hormones into your body. It depends on how many pills you have forgotten and how late you are in forgetting them.

If the pill is less than 12 hours late, take the pill as soon as possible and continue with the rest of the strip. In this case, you will still be protected from pregnancy.

However, if you are more than 12 hours late in taking the pill or you have missed more than one pill of Femodette, there is a risk of pregnancy. You should leave all the missed pills except the last missed pill. Take this pill as soon as possible and continue the cycle as normal. You will need extra protection during this time and you should use it for the next seven days. If you have missed pills near the end of the pack and have less than seven days remaining in your strip, when you come to the end start a new strip immediately and miss out your withdrawal bleed. If you have more than seven pills left in your pack since the missed pills, you do not have to do this.

If you have missed pills and had unprotected sex, especially if you missed pills in the first week, you may be pregnant. You should contact your doctor for advice as of what to do in this situation and if you have had unprotected sex recently, they may recommend that you use emergency contraception. If you have started a new pack immediately because you missed pills near the end of your pack, and you do not experience a withdrawal bleed after finishing the second pack, contact your doctor.

What else makes Femodette less effective?

Other than forgetting to take your pill, there are two other ways in which Femodette’s effectiveness can be reduced. If you have sickness and/or diarrhoea there is a chance that you may not be protected.  If you throw up in the first few hours of taking Femodette or have severe diarrhoea, it may not have been absorbed into your blood stream properly. If your illness stops before 12 hours, then take another pill from a new pack and keep this pack as spare. If it has been more than 12 hours when you start feeling better, treat the pill like a missed pill.

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