Antibiotics and Birth Control Pills

Lauren: My name is Lauren; I am from New York and I was wondering if birth control pills doesn't work while you are taking antibiotics.

Shona Murray: Lauren if you take birth control pills and antibiotics at the same time it really should not affect the efficiency of the birth control pill. Now if you are taking an antibiotic called Rifampicin, which is an uncommon antibiotic, it will decrease the effectiveness of the birth control pills. However, some people when they take birth control pills, they get a lot of nausea and they sometimes get a bit of diarrhea. So if you either vomiting or you have a lot of diarrhea, that will decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills, but if you have no GI symptoms, then the birth control pills should continue to be effective, while you are taking your antibiotics and it's important to take the antibiotics as prescribed.


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