Missed Birth Control — What To Do

For combined pills (the kind with estrogen and progestin), the key threshold is 48 hours. Being up to 48 hours late with one pill — or taking it a bit late — is low-risk: take it as soon as you remember and carry on, no backup needed. Once you've missed two or more pills in a row (48 hours or more), the CDC advises using a backup method like condoms for 7 days. For the traditional progestin-only 'mini-pill,' the window is much tighter — more than 3 hours late counts as missed — and for the drospirenone mini-pill it's 24 hours. This tool applies the right rule for your method.

Consider emergency contraception (EC) if you had unprotected sex around the time of the missed doses and you weren't protected — most often when pills were missed in the first week of a pack, or the mini-pill or shot was significantly late, and you've had sex in the last five days. EC is more effective the sooner it's taken, so if in doubt, don't wait to look into it. This tool flags when EC is worth considering based on your answers, and you can always ask a pharmacist or clinician.

Because of the hormone-free week. If you miss pills in the last (third) week of active/hormonal pills and then take your usual placebo or hormone-free week, you effectively extend the time without hormones — long enough that ovulation could occur. So the CDC advises skipping the hormone-free interval and starting your next pack straight after the active pills when you've missed pills in that third week. Missing pills in the first week matters for a different reason: you may not have built up protection yet, which is when emergency contraception is most likely to be relevant.

The shot is designed to be repeated every 13 weeks, but there's a grace period: it can be given up to 2 weeks late (within 15 weeks of the last shot) without needing backup. If you're more than 2 weeks late, the CDC advises getting the shot as soon as you can, using a backup method like condoms for 7 days afterward, and considering emergency contraception if you've had unprotected sex in the last five days. If it's been a long time, a clinician may want to confirm you're not pregnant first.

Missing pills affects your protection against pregnancy, not infections — pills never protected you against STIs in the first place. Only condoms (external or internal) reduce STI risk. Conveniently, if this tool tells you to use a backup method, condoms cover both bases at once. If STIs are a concern, keep using condoms and stay current on testing regardless of your birth control.

Yes. This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your answers are used on your own device and are never sent to a server, saved, or shared — close the tab and they're gone. It's general educational information based on CDC guidance; it isn't a prescription or medical advice and can't replace the instructions that came with your method or a conversation with a clinician or pharmacist.