What is oral contraceptive pills? How to use it? Advantages and disadvantages? Is I pills and OCPills same?

Question

Oral contraceptive pills act by interrupting the ovulation (release of the egg), thus creating an anovulatory cycle. It takes at least one ‘pill cycle’ for annovulation to get established. Hence, during the first cycle, one must use an alternative method of contraception.
If the woman forgets to take the pill at the usual time and remembers the lapse on the same day, she should take the scheduled pill on the same day, as soon as she remembers it. If the woman forgets to take ‘the pill’ for one day and remembers so only on the next day, she should take two pills on that day i.e. The ‘forgotten pill’ of the previous day, in addition to the scheduled pill for the day.
If, however there is a lapse in taking pills for two consecutive days then the woman must consider herself ‘unprotected’ and adopt another method of contraception for the rest of the cycle.
If the woman has a history of liver disease, abnormal liver function tests, steroid dependent cancer e.g. Breast cancer, abnormal uterine/vaginal bleeding or evidence of circulatory disease e.g. Thrombo-embolic disorders, hypertension and migraine, oral contraceptive pills are contraindicated. Other contraindications include diabetes, the first six months in the case of nursing mothers and epilepsy. However, a gynaecologist’s opinion should be sought prior to use.

Paras Shah · Accepted Answer

Oral contraceptive pills act by interrupting the ovulation (release of the egg), thus creating an anovulatory cycle. It takes at least one ‘pill cycle’ for annovulation to get established. Hence, during the first cycle, one must use an alternative method of contraception.
If the woman forgets to take the pill at the usual time and remembers the lapse on the same day, she should take the scheduled pill on the same day, as soon as she remembers it. If the woman forgets to take ‘the pill’ for one day and remembers so only on the next day, she should take two pills on that day i.e. The ‘forgotten pill’ of the previous day, in addition to the scheduled pill for the day.
If, however there is a lapse in taking pills for two consecutive days then the woman must consider herself ‘unprotected’ and adopt another method of contraception for the rest of the cycle.
If the woman has a history of liver disease, abnormal liver function tests, steroid dependent cancer e.g. Breast cancer, abnormal uterine/vaginal bleeding or evidence of circulatory disease e.g. Thrombo-embolic disorders, hypertension and migraine, oral contraceptive pills are contraindicated. Other contraindications include diabetes, the first six months in the case of nursing mothers and epilepsy. However, a gynaecologist’s opinion should be sought prior to use.