I’ve been on the combined pill for around 4 months and have never missed a pill. I usually take it at 9pm however sometimes it’s more like 9:30 and a few weeks ago i took it early at 6pm. I see lots of people say that taking the combined pill exactly on time isn’t completely necessary however i worry this will affect my protection as all information i have read says you are only 99% protected if you take your pill perfectly . Will i be more protected if i take it at exactly 9pm every day and is there any risk of pregnancy if i don’t? Also how long do you have had to been taking it perfectly in order to be completely protected?Im probably being super paranoid but i want to make sure, thank you!!

by perfectly it means accounting for things that will affect the pill- throwing up, 5/6+ trips/cups of diarrhoea, antibiotics, taking it within your time frame, etc. if you’re taking it within your timeframe and correctly that is a perfect user. there isn’t a thing of “less protected” you’re either protected or you’re not

You’re completely fine. You’re protected after 7 full days of taking it correctly ^ perfect use as stated above. Most combined pills have a 24 hour window in which to take a pill, as in if you’re due to take it at 9pm Tuesday then Tuesday’s pill isn’t counted as missed until you don’t take it by 9pm Wednesday. Even then you can safely miss a pill anywhere in the pack on most combined pills without your protection being affected. Taking it 9.30pm or 2am, or 3pm or 6pm has no effect on your protection, but some people find they are sensitive to taking it inconsistently and are prone to experiencing unwanted side effects if they take the pill at different times. You are either fully protected on the pill or not protected at all, there is no more or less protected. The 99.9% effectiveness thing is how effective the pill is statistically at preventing pregnancy over a year of perfect use (for legal reasons they cannot say it’s 100% effective), not that you’re 99.9% protected at any given time.

@onthepillxo @bluerose9 Okay thank you so much!