How effective is the birth control pill?

Answer 1

No form of contraception, except total abstinence, is 100% effective. If 1000 couples take the Birth Control pill perfectly, 3 couples will have a pregnancy over the course of the year.

In real life, the failure rate is about 3/100 because of user error. Among teens, about 1/8 will have a pregnancy. Missing or forgetting pills is the most common reason that the birth control pill fails.

Other reasons are interfering medications or herbal preparations.

Talk with your partner about how it would be for you if you had a pregnancy now. If an unintended pregnancy would be a disaster, consider using condoms along with the birth control pill or consider switching to a method with top-tier effectiveness such as the IUD or contraceptive implant.