Most women can use the emergency contraceptive pill. This includes women who are breastfeeding and women who cannot usually use hormonal contraception, such as the combined pill and contraceptive patch.
However, the emergency contraceptive pill may interact with some medicines (see below).
Breastfeeding women
The emergency contraceptive pill can be taken when breastfeeding. Although small amounts of the hormones contained in the pill may pass into your breast milk, it is not thought to be harmful to your baby.
Pregnancy
There is no evidence that the emergency contraceptive pill harms a developing baby. If you are pregnant when you take the emergency contraceptive pill, or you become pregnant after taking it, you might have a slightly increased risk of developing an ectopic pregnancy. You can discuss this further with your GP.
When to avoid it
The emergency contraceptive pill can interact with medicines used to treat epilepsy, HIV and tuberculosis, and with the complementary medicine St John’s Wort. These types of drugs are called enzyme inducers.
The dose of Levonelle or ellaOne may need to be increased if you are using this medication, or you may be advised to use the emergency intrauterine device (IUD) instead.
It is always best to check with your doctor whether any of your medication may interact and change the effectiveness of the emergency pill.
