To only use one form of contraceptive

[Brooksey5]

I'm on the progesterone only pill, an older style one where you can still ovulate and only have a 3 hour window in which the take the pill (I bled all the time on the newer ones). I’m good at taking it on time.

It had annoyed me that you can still ovulate so we generally use condoms aswell because on tablets for migraines that would be harmful to a pregnancy unless I stopped the tablets very early on.

We have been a bit lax about the condoms lately, in general DH and I would be happy with another DC though ideally we don’t want to start active trying for another 12 months.

Am I being stupid to not use two forms of contraceptive? Or should I just trust the progesterone only pill more?

Anyone?

With perfect use you're unlikely to fall pregnant - if that risk is acceptable to you go for it.

How will you feel if you fall pregnant and you’re still taking medication that could harm the foetus?

That’s the crux of it I guess.

I use the copper coil and the pill, Dianette, but to me getting pregnant would be devastating.

I am sure most people only use one form? Just avoid your ovulation days if it makes you more comfortable.

When I took the pill I only used a condom as well to protect from STDs. Once I was in a committed relationship with my dp we only used the pill. I had to stop taking it because I realised it was effecting me mentally, then we started to use condoms as contraception.

I know we wouldn’t want to abort if it happened accidentally so we’d just have to be pretty quick at recognising a pregnancy.

I was happy with just the pill when I was on the combined one but I made the mistake of googling this one 🙈 though I’m sure every pill has failure stories

POP really isn’t that safe and I personally wouldn’t want to rely on it given your medical issues. Would you consider the implant or Mirena instead? They use very similar hormones as I understand it but are much less prone to failure.

Would you have to come off your medication completely if TTC? If you did accidentally conceive while on the POP would the first missed period be enough notice to come off the medication safely? If so, and pregnancy wouldn’t be a disaster, then you could just back up with a pregnancy test every month.

If you're going to continue, I'd suggest you bulk-but cheap pregnancy tests and use one every month so that you can catch any resulting pregnancy as early as possible.

*bulk-buy

*presuming, of course, that you don't have proper periods on the pill

Hold on, do people usually use 2 forms at the same time?

OP, why don't you just use condoms and avoid the hormones?

@TheyMostlyComeOutAtNightMostly I don’t really want a long acting contraceptive as we’re planning to start TTC in about a years time anyway. I would have to come off medication completely before TTC. As with most medication they don’t really know what impact it may have on a foetus as they don’t run studies to find out the effects.

I do have periods on this pill, which just adds to me not trusting it! 😂 It annoys me that they prescribe POP as contraceptive if they’re known to be a bit hit and miss.

I don’t want to come off the pill completely as then we’ll have no back up! Though it would obviously make us more diligent condom wise.

Eugh I guess the answer really is to carry on using the condoms 😏

MHRA don’t consider the pill you’re on to be reliable against pregnancy when using your migraine tablets. The reason for this is that the migraine pills are teratogenic and it’s possible the pregnancy may need to be terminated should you get pregnant and the pill you are taking has one of the highest failure rates.

It depends on which migraine med you are taking. I was on one that I simply had to stop once I got a positive test because it wasn’t dangerous early on. If it does really matter, then of course you should use two forms of birth control. If you would just prefer to not be pregnant, sure take the chance and continue with one, but if you really don’t want to deal with a pregnancy, redundancy is needed.

There's a chance your medication could damage the baby so yes you would be totally selfish not to use two methods which is why you are told to use the two methods in this situation.