Hi!
Is it the combined pill? I did some lengthy research on the same question when I was taking it.
Why is there 21 days on the pill and then 7 days off? What is magic about these numbers?
after 7 days of not taking the pill, there is the chance that your body starts to prepare for ovulation by making some natural hormones. As we don’t want that, we start taking the pill again.
7 days is thought to be by the medical world as the length of time that you can be off the pill with very little risk of pregnancy. After that, your body starts to wake up and produce its own hormones.
Once you have been on the pill for 7 days again, your body is back in the fake state again, and you could in theory have another 7 day break if you wanted to. This would be hideous to have so many withdrawal bleeds, so i wouldn’t recommend it. Also the constant fluctuation in hormones in your body might be a bit upsetting for it.
so, if you miss a pill, you need to consider when your last break was. If it was within the last 7 days then you should continue with the pack as normal, taking the skipped pill if your instructions recommend it. Otherwise you can choose to have a withdrawal bleed at any time in your pack, or choose to have several packs continuously.
You also don’t need to have a break of 7 days either, you can have fewer days on your break but not more if you want to avoid pregnancy.