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Oral contraceptives and alcohol: compatible or not?
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
The instructions for most medications indicate their incompatibility with alcoholic beverages. Experts say that oral contraceptives - pills that prevent pregnancy - are not one of these drugs.
A woman is allowed to drink a small amount of wine, which will not affect the reliability and quality of contraceptive protection.
However, this applies specifically to moderate doses of alcohol. When abused, the effectiveness of protection is significantly reduced – although only indirectly. The study showed that girls who drink relax, their concentration and sense of responsibility decrease. First of all, this leads to skipping the next dose of the drug.
According to Planned Parenthood experts, alcohol consumption does not affect the action of intrauterine devices, oral contraceptives, implants and patches. If you follow all the doctor's recommendations, the effectiveness of the listed products can be more than 91%.
Experts note: if a woman vomits within two hours of taking the pill due to drinking a large dose of alcohol, the contraceptive effect is lost. In such a situation, doctors advise taking another pill immediately or getting a telephone consultation with a gynecologist. However, according to statistics, the main problem is that a woman misses a pill due to drinking alcohol. After a wild evening, the next morning a woman remembers the need to take the drug, but often by this time the effectiveness of contraceptive prophylaxis has already been impaired.
It is believed, for example, that progestin-only contraceptives remain effective when taken regularly at the same time every day – the permissible error is 3 hours. If you miss a dose, ovulation may be stimulated.
And one more fact: women taking oral contraceptives metabolize ethyl alcohol more slowly. As a result, alcohol stays in the bloodstream longer, accumulating in large quantities: the state of intoxication occurs faster.
However, as experts assure, it is not worth relaxing and combining alcoholic drinks with pills. According to the same statistics, many women who are intoxicated are inclined to engage in sexual intercourse with casual acquaintances, without using condoms.
A survey conducted three years ago among ordinary Americans aged 26-38 years revealed that more than 13% of men and almost 12% of women had some degree of adverse effects after episodes of alcohol abuse. Among such effects, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, HIV infections, etc. were most often noted. Therefore, experts warn: it is better to prevent such troubles by not abusing alcohol.
Information is available on the pages of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America – plannedparenthood.org.
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