- Men and Women
Taking your pill on Holiday
Written by: Editors
Modified on:
Check out our handy tips for taking your birth control when you’re travelling. When taking your pill, there are also a number of things to look out for. Are you packing for your next vacation or a business trip?
Spending extra care with your birth control will help you! For example, make sure that you order the pill on time at the pharmacy
Taking your pill on Holiday
The contraceptive pill is easy to use, but when you take your pill while on holiday, then there are quite a few things to keep in mind:
– Time difference. So you’re travelling to another time zone, then all of a sudden in the past (if you go West flies) or later (if you go to the East goes) than at home. Please keep this in mind if you take the pill. Is there a time difference at the place of destination less than 12 hours? Then you can just keep taking the pill at your usual time (for example, right before going to bed). If the time difference is greater than 12 hours or you are taking the mini pill, then you need the moment when you swallow the pill to shift. Ask a doctor or pharmacist for advice.
– Menstruation shifting. With most birth control pills, you can easily change the time you get your period during your trip. You swallow the pill then it just stops during your chosen week. However, do not do this for more than three months and check the package insert for the appropriate instructions.
– Hand luggage. When you are flying don’t pack your pill in your check in bags, take the pill than with you in your hand luggage.
It is too cold inside the baggage hold and this may affect the way your contraception pill functions.
– Diarrhoea/vomiting. Abroad do you eat otherwise? Also the hygiene not everywhere equally well. A belly touch of flu has you so. Vomiting and diarrhea can reduce the effect of the pill. Should this happen, then are condoms a good form of additional contraceptive precautions on the trip.
Condoms on a trip
Birth control barriers such as condoms not only protect against pregnancy but also against STD's, and are therefore indispensable as birth control on holiday.
A few tips:
– The quality of condoms abroad is not always as good as here in the UK. So take a stash from home.
– Condoms can be affected by low temperatures in the baggage hold of an aircraft. This allows, for example, tiny cracks in some brands to form. Carrying them in your hand luggage to avoid nasty accidents.
Other birth control on travel
When you are travelling with birth control methods on holidays then consider the following:
– The contraceptive ring (Nuvaring) lets you use it as birth control on vacation. You have this ring for three weeks and so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to take the pill. It also allows you to shift your period with this ring (see Insert). Take an extra ring in your hand luggage when you go fly: the baggage hold is too cold and can interfere with the pill.
– The contraceptive patch may not be an ideal contraceptive on a trip. By use of sunscreen, grains of sand on the beach and spend several hours bobbing in the sea or pool can the patch faster let go. Do you want to still use the contraceptive patch? Pack it in your hand luggage, check regularly that it is still tight and make sure your skin is clean and dry if you replacing it with a get a new one.
– The contraceptive injection can offer many benefits. This contraceptive protects you for three months against an unwanted pregnancy. You don’t have= go on holiday and monitor it. Keep in mind though that you can’t shift your period time with this type of contraception. Also be aware that the contraceptive injection should be repeated after 3 months. So plan your holiday around it. Consider using a condom if additional contraception.
– The birth control swab protects you against pregnancy for three years and is, therefore, the ideal birth control to take while travelling. You don’t have to worry about taking it daily. The downside is you can’t postpone your period.
– The IUD is also a convenient pill. With a protection period of five to ten years, you don’t have to worry about the unplanned baby. However, you cannot postpone menstruation.
Note: Make sure the birth control ring, birth control patch, the contraceptive injection, the birth control swab and the IUD protect you against not an STD such as Chlamydia.
So to be safe, take condoms with you because you never know who you may meet along the way …
Have a Good Trip!
Sources: Leef.nl