If we do a quick internet search for “morning-after pill while pregnant,” we will find several questions about it. There are doubts and fears about its consequences for the baby. It may seem pointless to take the morning-after pill while pregnant, but it is actually quite common to find women who have done this. The reason may be the strong advertising around this medication. The advertising is really persuasive, but reality is not quite like that. The morning-after pill, also called emergency contraceptive, is not a miracle, and it does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases. Of course, if taken correctly and only in emergencies, it has a much more effective success rate. However, indiscriminate use of this type of contraceptive has made more and more women report that they became pregnant even though they took it within the 72-hour window.
What the Morning-After Pill Is Made Of
Before answering why some women get pregnant after taking the morning-after pill, let’s learn a little more about this contraceptive. The morning-after pill is made of levonorgestrel, a type of progesterone (the female hormone used in contraceptives) that is synthetic. Compared to daily contraceptive pills, the morning-after pill contains up to twenty times more hormones, which, if not taken properly, can cause several side effects1. Many women start using the morning-after pill as a daily contraceptive, which makes the method ineffective when it comes to pregnancy. Taking a pill every time you have unprotected sex causes one pill to cancel out the effect of the other, and the body gets used to the hormone level and the expected effect might not be achieved. In a testimonial about taking the morning-after pill while pregnant, a woman said that after having unprotected sex, she took the morning-after pill. She experienced light bleeding and thought it was her period, but it was actually implantation. A few days later, she had unprotected sex again and took the pill again, unaware that she was already pregnant, and soon after she found out she was pregnant. That was when all her concerns about her baby’s health began.
The Morning-After Pill Can Fail
The morning-after pill can fail, definitely. Although its effectiveness ranges from 95% to 98%, it can fail if not taken within the 72-hour window, that is, three days after unprotected sex2. Another situation mentioned above is that one pill can cancel out the effect of another and even cause a hormonal overload. It is important to clarify that under no circumstances should the morning-after pill be used as a regular contraceptive. You should avoid it as much as possible, seeking other contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy.
I Took the Morning-After Pill and Didn’t Get My Period—Is That Normal?
A simple answer is: the menstrual cycle in which you take the morning-after pill can be shorter or longer due to the hormonal surge released when you take the medication. How the cycle will be affected depends on how your body metabolizes sex hormones. With constant use, the morning-after pill can disrupt your menstrual cycle and make it easier for a pregnancy to happen. The menstrual cycle following use of the morning-after pill should occur normally3, since hormone levels will have returned to normal. However, there may also be changes due to repeated use of the medication, causing disruption even to future cycles.
I Took the Morning-After Pill While Pregnant—What Now?
The morning-after pill can work in two ways, depending on what stage of the menstrual cycle the woman is in. If she has not yet ovulated, this method prevents the egg from being released. This way, sperm cells do not find the female part necessary for fertilization and, therefore, fertilization doesn’t occur. If the woman has already ovulated, the pill acts differently: it changes vaginal secretions, affecting the cervical mucus and the endometrium, making the environment unsuitable for sperm survival. This causes sperm to die along the way, preventing fertilization. The main role of the morning-after pill (that is, the real reason it was developed) is to prevent ovulation and stop the sperm from meeting the egg. However, in a situation where the sperm has already united with the egg but it hasn’t implanted in the uterus yet (implantation hasn’t happened yet), the morning-after pill can also interfere with this process. It changes the lining of the uterus, the endometrium, preventing the egg from attaching, so it will be expelled along with the menstrual period. This is the part of the process that many religions consider abortive. Now, if the egg has already attached to the uterus, the morning-after pill will have no effect. Once pregnancy is established, the pill cannot interrupt it and, even if the woman takes the medication, the embryo will not suffer any consequences. As mentioned before, the morning-after pill is made of female hormones, and even though synthetic, they do not cause harm to the baby if taken without knowing you are pregnant. Ideally, you should always seek medical help and explain everything from the beginning, so that the doctor can help you through all the stages ahead. And remember, using emergency contraception as a regular form of prevention can be extremely harmful to a woman’s body. Take this opportunity to talk to your doctor about switching to other methods as soon as the baby is born! Important Tip: Sensitive pregnancy tests can save those who are in doubt whether the morning-after pill worked or not! That’s why we recommend the Famivita pregnancy test, which can detect pregnancy up to 5 days before your missed period! Check out also: Forgot to Take the Contraceptive – What Now?
