Antibiotics And Birth Control

Hi. I'm 24 year old female and I have some questions about birth control and interaction with other medications.
You see, I'm using birth control pills almost a year now and I'm very satisfied with the effect. I have no side effects and feel no risk of pregnancy at all. About few days ago I felt some usual symptoms of a cold, headaches, fatigue, runny nose and I went to the doctor which prescribed me some antibiotic.
So, I have used it along with my BC pills. But just the other a good friend told me that this could be very dangerous because, supposedly, this antibiotic can reduce pill effect. Please tell me is this true because I'm very scared in this moment!

You friend told you right. I can believe that your doctor didn’t ask you about birth control pill usage. Like I said- you friend was right because antibiotics and even some other prescription drugs can make your birth control pills not work and you can get pregnant when you do not want to be?
Antibiotics work against birth control pill on two possible ways- first- they make it hard for your body to absorb the hormones in your birth control pills and second-they can reduce the re-circulation of estrogens found in your BC pill within the body.
My suggestion is- stop with sexual activity imidiately, until you are finished with your antibiotic or use some barrier form of birth control such as condom, diaphragm or cervical cap.

I have been taking birth control for months. I recently had to take an antibiotic for a bad sinus infection. I finished with the antibiotic 4 days ago and this morning I started my period. I am in the 2nd week of my birth control pack. Should I keep taking the bc? or should I have my period now? Does this mean the antiobiotic messed up my system?

Some women are so wrong to take antibiotics for a viral cold. Lots of our antibiotics don't even work anymore because the viral strands have evolved to overcome our drugs. You don't even need antibodies for a simple runny nose; the body was meant to heal itself otherwise we would all be ill all the time, you shouldn't have taken drugs in the first place and now you need a new doctor because yours is incompetant if he can't even remember to tell you the effects of drugs on BC.

Just so you know, the reason she needed antibiotics for her sinus infection is because most of the time a sinus infection is bacterial, not viral.

"antibiotics don't even work anymore because the viral strands have evolved to overcome our drugs" haha. Sweetie.....antibiotics are for BACTERIA.....not viruses.

I stopped taking my antibiotics yesterday. I have continued to take BC while taking the antibiotics. I was just curious if anyone knows when it is safe to have sex again? As soon as I stop taking the Antibiotic? I've searched for it on the internet and have been unable to find anything. I would think that the Antibiotic would still be in my system, but to be honest I know nothing about how medications work. I do not want to take any chances on getting pregnant!

I have heard all of the following: 24 hours after discontinuation, one week after discontinuation, and 30 days after discontinuation. A month is certainly the longest that the pills effectiveness could be diminished. From what I have been told by my doctor, a day is not long enough but a week probably is. There are no concrete studies showing the exact effects of antibiotics on BC or the time frames so anywhere from a week to a month -- it all depends on your comfort zone after that.

There are SOME antibiotics that are SUSPECTED to cause changes in efficacy of birth control pills. If you feel strongly about not getting pregnant, you should use alternative birth control methods for up to a week afterwards. It all depends on how strongly you feel... the only guarantee for not getting pregnant is abstinence. There are no studies that I know of that prove an interaction between antibiotics and birth control, but there are none that disprove it either.

Also, to clarify, antibiotics ARE used for bacterial infections, not viruses. There ARE rare strains of bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, for instance MRSA. Like I said, these strains of bacteria are rare and antibiotics will cure the vast majority of bacterial infections. The best way to prevent the development of resistant bacterial strains like MRSA is to FINISH YOUR ANTIBIOTICS!!! Do not stop taking your medicine after you feel better, take it until it is GONE. If you only take it until you feel better, you may get even sicker within a few days because you didn't take the medicine long enough to kill ALL of the bacteria.

I would like to know if antibodies really do make your birth control ineffective. I have heard it before from people but never from a doctor. Ive been on BC for at least 3 years now and am currently taking antobiodics for an infection and i am wondering if after that long of NOT producing eggs is 10 days of antibodies really long enough for my body to get back to a point where i could concieve.