What kind of pills are there

The type of birth control you use is a personal decision, and there are many options to choose from. Birth control pills, also called oral contraceptives, are medications you take by mouth to prevent pregnancy. Find out how they work and what side effects they can cause, as well as other factors to help you decide if birth control pills are a good choice for you.

Check out a visual guide of how birth control affects your body ». Combination pills contain synthetic man-made forms of the hormones estrogen and progestin. Most pills in each cycle are active, which means they contain hormones. There are several types of combination pills:. Progestin-only pills contain progestin without estrogen. This type of pill is also called the minipill. With these progestin-only pills, all pills in the cycle are active.

There are no inactive pills, so you may or may not have a period while taking progestin-only pills. Not every type of pill is a good fit for every woman. Talk to your doctor about which pill option would work best for you. Factors that can affect your choice include:.

Combination pills work in two ways. First, they prevent your body from ovulating. Second, these pills cause your body to thicken your cervical mucus. This mucus is fluid around your cervix that helps sperm travel to your uterus so it can fertilize an egg. The thickened mucus helps prevent sperm from reaching the uterus. Progestin-only pills also work in a few different ways. Mainly, they work by thickening your cervical mucus and by thinning your endometrium. In addition, progestin-only pills may prevent ovulation.

Combination pills come in a variety of formats. These include monthly packs, which follow either day, day, or day cycles. Extended regimens can follow day cycles. For all of these formats, you take one pill each day at the same time of day.

Progestin-only pills, on the other hand, only come in packs of Combination birth control pills are also categorized according to whether the dose of hormones in the active pills stays the same or varies:.

Most combination birth control pills contain 10 to 35 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol, a kind of estrogen. Women who are sensitive to hormones may benefit from taking a pill that contains a dose of estrogen at the lower end of this range.

However, low-dose pills may result in more breakthrough bleeding — bleeding or spotting between periods — than higher dose pills. Combination birth control pills prevent your ovaries from releasing an egg. They also slow an egg's progress through the fallopian tubes, thicken cervical mucus and thin the lining of the uterus endometrium. All of these actions help keep sperm from joining the egg.

The minipill slows an egg's progress through the fallopian tubes, thickens cervical mucus and thins the endometrium — all of which help prevent sperm from reaching the egg. The minipill sometimes also suppresses ovulation. Your doctor will ask about your medical history and any medications you take to determine which birth control pill is right for you. You have many options for birth control. If you choose to take birth control pills, work with your health care provider to decide which type of birth control pill is right for you.

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Our Housecall e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest health information. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Take the hormone pills from one packet and then start the hormone pills from a new packet, missing the seven non-hormone pills. With this option, you are protected from pregnancy unless you forget more than eight pills in a row.

You can do this for as many packets of hormone pills as you like. You can take the non-hormone pills to have a period when you want to. You might notice bleeding and spotting at first, but this usually goes away with time or you can take up to seven non-hormone pills to have a period.

Your period may be lighter than usual, but if you miss your period, keep taking the pill and call us for advice. If you do get pregnant while taking the pill and want to continue with your pregnancy, there will be no extra risk for your baby. The research does NOT show a link between the pill and weight gain, headaches, breast tenderness, nausea or change in sex drive. Serious side effects are rare. If you take the pill and you smoke, you will be more at risk of stroke or heart attack. Some pills can increase the risk of blood clots in the legs from 2 in 10, people per year to 6 times that rate.

Research shows that even if there is a risk of breast cancer, it is small. Before you start taking the pill, the nurse or doctor will ask you if you or anyone in your family has had breast cancer. Whether you take the pill or not, you should get a cervical smear every three years. People can get the subsidised HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer up to 26 years old. Even 30 years after stopping the pill you will still have a lower risk. This is cancer of the lining of the uterus.

Even 15 years after stopping the pill you will still have a lower risk.