Can You Still Take Expired Birth Control Pills?

Does Expired Birth Control Work?

What’s in an expiration date? If you’re the kind of person who takes a risk on milk from the back of the fridge, you might be more inclined to see them as expiration suggestions (you do you!). Even if you’re not, it can be tough to know what an expiration date really means. After all, it’s not like milk turns into cottage cheese as soon as it hits its expiration date.

Medications, including hormonal birth control pills, have expiration dates too. Studies of many expired medications indicate they probably work, but their effectiveness decreases over time. Unfortunately, actual studies of expired birth control don’t exist, and the consequences of less effective contraception could definitely matter. After all, there’s a big difference between your headache cure not working and your birth control not working.

Do birth control pills expire?

Yes, birth control pills do expire, though studies of expired birth control are surprisingly scant. Look for an expiration date on your pill pack — it should be at least twelve months from the manufacture date.

Though there are no studies of expired birth control, studies of other expired drugs indicate that the active ingredients they contain will break down over time, meaning there’s less and less of them. This happens slowly, so within the time before expiration, your birth control is fine. But after that, there’s no guarantee they’ll work. All things considered, we don’t recommend taking birth control pills that are past their expiration date.

Are expired birth control pills dangerous?

There’s no evidence that taking expired birth control will harm you, outside of increasing your risk of becoming pregnant. The hormones in the pills just break down over time, and there’s nothing harmful inside of old birth control.

But scientific evidence on expired birth control is shockingly lacking (as in, we couldn’t find any whatsoever). Since there aren’t any studies on expired birth control, we can’t actually tell you exactly what happens to it. But we do know that the expiration date set by the manufacturers is the date until which they’ll guarantee that their product is effective.¹

While data on expired birth control is scant, there have been a number of studies on expired medications in general. Most of the research indicates that medications are still effective even after their expiration dates have passed, and even long after, in some cases.

Data on expired birth control is scant

One study tested a few different kinds of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen. All of them had acceptable ranges of their active ingredients up to two years past their expiration dates.²

Another study looked at eight different medications, including aspirin, acetaminophen, codeine, and an amphetamine. After testing samples of each that ranged from 28 to 40 years past their expiration dates, the researchers found that 12 of the 14 active ingredients the medications included were still present in concentrations of 90% or above.³

So, there’s evidence to suggest that many medications are good past their expiration dates. But it’s really important to note that these studies didn’t include hormonal birth control. There’s little publicly-available information on how quickly the sex hormones inside birth control pills break down. That means we can’t offer good recommendations either in favor or against birth control pills being good past their expiration dates.

Why is that? It’s tough to say, but we can offer some informed speculation based on longstanding trends in the pharmaceutical industry.

For example, pharmaceutical companies tend not to spend a lot of money doing research on birth control in general.

Most of these companies spend about 20% of their revenue on research and development.⁴ But in recent years, the companies making birth control spent just 2% of the revenue from them on R&D, according to the authors of an op-ed published in the scientific journal Nature in 2020.⁵ In the context of a clear lack of emphasis for research into birth control, figuring out exactly how long their birth control is good for might just seem like an unnecessary expense.

There’s another more basic potential conflict of interest at play here as well: the earlier birth control pills expire, the more likely it is people will need to buy more of them, increasing revenue.

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Do other kinds of birth control expire?

Aside from birth control pills, we do know a critical expiration date to watch out for is the one on condoms.⁶ The materials condoms are made of, whether latex, polyurethane, or even lambskin, break down over time. That means an old condom could outright break during use, or develop microscopic holes that let sperm through. If a condom is past its expiration date, throw it out!

Other kinds of birth control also need to be replaced at regular intervals, including intrauterine devices (IUDs), contraceptive implants, the ring, and the patch. Replacement times differ for each method, so be sure to pay attention to the specific instructions for each one. For example, the implant needs to be replaced every three years, while some types of the ring need to be swapped out every month.

What should I do if my birth control is expired?

If your birth control pills are expired, you should get rid of them and start a new, unexpired pack. If that means there will be a short gap in your hormonal birth control, make sure to use another method like a condom until you’ve been taking the pill again for seven days.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends you seal medications you’re tossing in a container like a plastic bag before throwing them away. And to protect your personal information, cross out or remove your info on the pack before throwing it out to be extra safe.⁷

We may have better information on how long birth control truly lasts someday. It’s a question that’s more than possible to test, and the answer could help people around the world wondering if their birth control is good or not. But for now, stay on the safe side. If your birth control is past its expiration date, don’t use it.

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