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Birth control pills; how effective are they?

Posted:
Jun 9, 2006 @ 8:08pm
by Chad
Title pretty much says it all. If I were to have unprotected sex while she was on birth control, what are the odds of her getting pregnant? I've heard a ton of different things, and I'd just like another few opinions.

Posted:
Jun 9, 2006 @ 8:12pm
by David Horn
IIRC, it's about 90-95% effective.

Posted:
Jun 9, 2006 @ 8:15pm
by James S
No, it's 99.9%. Birth Control pills are more effective than a vasectomy on a statistical basis. (i.e. more people have gotten pregnant because their vasectomy was done wrong than people have gotten pregnant when on birth control).
The pill's effectiveness is entirely proportional to how precise she is in taking the pill. If it's a daily pill, did she miss a day or take the pill a couple hours later than she was supposed to. That affects the pill's effectiveness. If it's monthly, did she fudge it by a couple days? If she did it all correctly and took the pill when she was supposed to take it, then the pill is pretty much a guarantee. Just as with the vasectomy, the only time people have become pregnant while on the pill is when the pill was not taken as regularly as it should have been taken.
The pill works by effectively counter-acting progesterone caused to be released by the gonadotropins LH and FSH which are produced by the corpus luteum and the follicle. These hormones are what cause the uterus's endoderm to grow in size in order to accomodate an implanted, fertilized egg. The pill prevents this process so that a fertilized egg cannot implant and become nourished, meaning the fertilized egg dies. If she missed a day taking the monthly pill, enough progesterone could have been released to cause just enough growth to allow an egg to become implanted. That egg then causes the release of more homones to signal that it has successfully docked and it needs more nourishment and a greater vascular network.

Posted:
Jun 9, 2006 @ 8:26pm
by David Horn
Well, yeah - but as James said all sorts of things can screw it up. A quick Google reveals that 2 - 8 girls in every 100 get pregnant while on the pill.
Even some complementary medicines (St John's Wort etc.) can interfere with the way the pill works.

Posted:
Jun 9, 2006 @ 8:29pm
by James S
Lol, my last sentence I see "homones" ... must be a Freudian slip from the other thread.


Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 8:30am
by Chad

Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 4:54pm
by Jaybot

Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 5:51pm
by refractor

Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 6:14pm
by Chad

Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 9:57pm
by sandmann

Posted:
Jun 10, 2006 @ 10:11pm
by James S

Posted:
Jun 11, 2006 @ 5:21am
by sponge

Posted:
Jun 11, 2006 @ 7:24am
by Jadam

Posted:
Jun 11, 2006 @ 2:12pm
by James S
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Posted:
Jun 11, 2006 @ 3:03pm
by Jadam
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