So you can technically get pregnant at any time of the month, so why throw in a couple placebo pills? What do they do exactly, and can you get pregnant during that week of taking them?
In: Biology
The placebo pills are included in 28-day packs on BC pills – Pills in a pack have different hormone doses by week, since a woman’s hormone levels change over the course of the month. The placebo pills are to be taken during the week that the woman is scheduled to have her period.
The idea that you can get pregnant at any time of the month is both true but not 100% accurate; a woman can have sex while on her period and it’s possible for the sperm to survive internally until she ovulates – it’s rare, but possible. But when she’s on the pill, the non-placebo pills should be altering her hormone levels enough so that the egg won’t implant, regardless of whether or not sperm survives on placebo week. It should also be regulating her enough so that she’s ovulating regularly, and not early, which is how the pregnant-on-period thing usually happens.
The point of the placebo pills, as explained to me by my doctor when I first started on the pill, is just to reinforce habit – women need to take the pill at the same time every day for maximum effectiveness, so the placebo pills are included so that the woman can still take something as usual for that week where the extra hormones are not needed. BC packs also come in 21 day options which exclude the placebo pills, and then women are meant to just not take anything for the week of menstruation.
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