Will A Single Course of Antibiotics Reduce The Effectiveness of My Contraceptive Pill?
In a previous article (Common Pain Killer and Vitamin C May Reduce The Effectiveness Of Your Oral Contraceptive Pill) I gave you a list of common medications that, if taken REGULARLY, could reduce the effectiveness of your oral contraceptive pills. You may have wondered after reading the article if taking antibiotics OCCASIONALLY or intermittently, would still have an adverse effect on the efficacy of your contraceptive pill, after all, there are few people who don’t need the odd course of antibiotics now and then. Well, the short answer is, it depends on how long your course of antibiotics is for and whether or not the antibiotic is one that causes enzymes to destroy bacteria in your gut and prevent your contraceptive pill from being fully absorbed.
Most studies that look at what happens in a woman’s body when she takes antibiotics and hormonal contraceptives are of short duration and only investigate effects in the initial weeks of antibiotic use. The answer varies if you’re going to be taking antibiotics for more than 3 weeks so read on. This is a simplified summary but a link to the official pdf is below.
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