Alcohol and The Pill

Hey guys! Hope all of you are off to a great semester. Mine’s been pretty good so far, although midterms were kind of a bitch. Sorry it’s been so long. I told you I might not get to post much during the year, my courseload’s pretty intense. But something happened to one of my friends last weekend that made me think of this post. Last time I talked about the birth control pill. It’s one of the most effective methods of contraception out there, so a TON of college kids use it. As they well should, I’m all for that. But what’s something else a ton of college kids do? Drink. So everybody wonders, at one point or another, how does alcohol interact with the pill?
Good news: It doesn’t have any harmful effects, directly. Drinking - even as much as college kids do - won’t lower the pill’s effectiveness. But the story’s a little more complicated than that. There are some things you have to watch out for.
Bad news: If you’re on the pill, alcohol will get you drunker. If it gets you drunker, you’re more likely to throw up. And if you throw up the pill, it won’t be effective. There is no set period of time between when you take the pill and when it’s “safe” to throw up. Plus, you should just try to avoid throwing up in general. So you really have to be careful of this. WATCH HOW MUCH YOU DRINK. I can’t stress this enough. Not only will it help you avoid vomiting, but there’s other considerations with getting too drunk, too. If you get drunk earlier in the day than you take your pill, you could forget. Which is BAD. Also, drinking lowers your inhibitions and makes you more relaxed and more likely to do something, frankly, STUPID. Like have unprotected sex. Remember, even if you’re on the pill you should use a condom. And that’s a lot less likely to happen if you’re drunk. So as much as I know I sound like a mother or a university official or campus police officer, DON’T DRINK TOO MUCH. Know your limits. Believe me, I’ve been there, I know what it’s like to go overboard. And I’ve seen friends who’ve had it way worse. Be smart. Don’t drink too much, if only because it can increase your chances of doing something dumb and really regretting it.