How do birth control pills protect you when you’re on your period and taking sugar pills?
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So here’s the fun thing about human reproduction. Human Females can only get pregnant for a few days out of every monthly cycle (for the most part, some exceptions can occur). For most of the rest of the time the uterus may be ready for pregnancy but the egg is not present and therefore the sperm just sorta… die. Hormonal birth control pills work by tricking the body into already thinking it’s pregnant (so it doesn’t release an egg at all) or making fertilization much less likely.
So to your question, a human female having her period is in the part of the cycle where the egg is already released and gone. The uterus is closed for remodeling and the chance of pregnancy is virtually zero. So to allow the woman’s body to have a (relatively) normal cycle, you take sugar pills for those few days but there’s nothing to protect you from so it isn’t an issue.
The sugar pills are not protecting you. The 21 days of pills you took leading up to the week of sugar pills are what’s protecting you, along with starting the new pack immediately after the week of sugar pills. Which is why it’s so important to always take all of your pills on time.
The sugar pills are just there to help you stay in the habit of taking the pill each day on time.
Here is a great overview of the sugar pill function:
[birth control placebo break](https://www.nurx.com/faq/am-i-still-protected-from-pregnancy-during-the-placebo-break-of-my-birth-control/)
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