Femodette Contraceptive Pill

Femodette Contraceptive Pill Online

Femodette is a combined oral contraceptive pill and it is used to prevent to get pregnant. 

This contraceptive contains two types of female sex hormones, oestrogen, and progestogen. These hormones stop you getting pregnant by working in three ways: 

• By preventing an egg being released from your ovaries
• By making the fluid (mucus) in your cervix thicker, which makes it more difficult for sperm to enter the womb
• by preventing the lining of your womb thickening enough for an egg to grow in it.

The benefits of taking the pill include:

• it is one of the most reliable reversible methods of contraception if used correctly
• it doesn't interrupt sex
• it usually makes your periods regular, lighter and less painful
• it may help with pre-menstrual symptoms.

Femodette will not protect you against sexually transmitted infections, such as Chlamydia or HIV. Only condoms can help to do this.  

Femodette must be taken as directed to prevent pregnancy.

• I have missed a pill, what should I do?

  If you are less than 12 hours late with a pill, take it straight away. Keep taking your pills at the usual time. This may mean taking two pills in one day. Don't worry - your contraceptive protection should not be reduced.

  If you are more than 12 hours late with a pill, or you have missed more than one pill, your contraceptive protection may be reduced.

  • Take the most recently missed pill as soon as you remember, even if it means taking two at once. Leave any earlier missed pills in the pack. 
  • Continue to take a pill every day for the next seven days at your usual time.
  • If you come to the end of a strip of pills during these seven days, start the next strip without taking the usual seven day break. You probably won't have a bleed until after you finish the second strip of pills, but don't worry. If you finish the second strip of pills and don't have a bleed, do a pregnancy test before starting another strip.

  Use extra contraception for seven days after missing a pill, such as condoms. 

  If you have missed one or more pills from the first week of your strip and you had sex in that week, you could become pregnant. Contact your doctor, family planning nurse or pharmacist for advice as soon as possible. They may recommend you use emergency contraception. 

• If have lost a pill, what should I do?

  Either take the last pill of the strip in place of the lost pill. Then take all the other pills on their proper days. Your cycle will be one day shorter than normal, but your contraceptive protection won't be affected. After your seven pill-free days you will have a new starting day, one day earlier than before.

  Or if you do not want to change the starting day of your cycle, take a pill from a spare strip if you have one. Then take all the other pills from your current strip as usual. You can then keep the opened spare strip in case you lose any more pills. 

• I am sick and have diarrhoea, what should I do?

  If you are sick or have very bad diarrhoea within 4 hours of taking the Pill, your body may not get its usual dose of hormones from that pill. 

• I missed a period, could I be pregnant?

  Occasionally, you may miss a withdrawal bleed. This could mean that you are pregnant, but that is very unlikely if you have taken your pills correctly. Start your next strip at the normal time. If you think that you might have put yourself at risk of pregnancy, or if you miss a second bleed, you should do a pregnancy test. You can buy these from the chemist or get a free test at your family planning clinic or doctors surgery.  

• I have taken more than one pill, should it cause harm?

  It is unlikely that taking more than one pill will do you any harm, but you may feel sick, vomit or have some vaginal bleeding. Talk to your doctor if you have any of these symptoms. 

Side Effects of Femodette

Like all medicines, Femodette can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them. If you get any side effect, particularly if severe and persistent, or have any change to your health that you think may be due to Femodette, please talk to your doctor.

An increased risk of blood clots in the veins or blood clots in the arteries is present for all women using combined hormonal contraceptives.

Rare side effects (between 1 and 10 in every 10000 users may be affected)

Harmful blood clots in a vein or artery for example:

• in a leg or foot
• in a lung
• heart attack
• stroke
• a mini-stroke or temporary stroke-like symptoms
• blood clots in the liver, stomach/intestine, kidney or eye.

The chance of having a blood clot may be higher if you have any other conditions that increase this risk.

Signs of a severe allergic reaction or worsening of hereditary angioedema:

• swelling of the hands, face, lips, mouth, tongue or throat.
• a red bumpy rash and itching.

Signs of breast cancer include:

• dimpling of the skin
• changes in the nipple
• any lumps you can see or feel

Signs of cancer of the cervix include:

• vaginal discharge that smells and/or contains blood
• unusual vaginal bleeding
• pelvic pain
• painful sex

Signs of severe liver problems include:

• severe pain in your upper abdomen
• yellow skin or eyes
• inflammation of the liver
• your whole body starts itching

Common side effects (between 100 and 1000 in every 10000 users may be affected)

• feeling sick
• stomach ache
• putting on weight
• headaches
• depressive moods or mood swings
• sore or painful breasts

Uncommon side effects (between 10 and 100 in every 10000 users may be affected)

• being sick and stomach upsets
• fluid retention
• migraine
• loos of interest in sex
• breast enlargement
• skin rash which is itchy

Rare side effects (between 1 and 10 in every 10000 users may be affected)

• poor tolerance of contact lenses
• losing weight
• the increase of interest in sex
• vaginal or breast discharge

Other side effects

Bleeding and spotting between your periods can sometimes occur for the first few months but this usually stops once your body has adjusted to Femodette.

Chloasma may happen even if you have been using Femodette for a number of months. Chloasma may be reduced by avoiding too much sunlight and/or UV lamps.

Conditions that may worsen during pregnancy or previous use of the pill:

• yellowing of the skin
• persistent itching
• kidney or liver problems
• gall stones
• certain rare medical conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus
• occurrence or deterioration of the movement disorder chorea
• blister-like rash whilst pregnant
• an inherited form of deafness
• Crohn's disease
• ulcerative colitis
• a personal or family history of a form of sickle cell disease
• swelling of body parts
• an inherited disease called porphyria
• cancer of the cervix

Before taking any medication, it is important to read the Patient Information Leaflet. You can find information leaflets for your medicines by typing them into the search bar at medicines.org, or by contacting us.

Take Femodette every day for 21 days. Femodette comes in strips of 21 pills, each marked with a day of the week.

• Take your pill at the same time every day.
• Start by taking a pill marked with the correct day of the week.
• Follow the direction of the arrows on the strip.
• Take one pill each day, until you have finished all 21 pills.
• Swallow each pill whole, with water if necessary. Do not chew the pill.

Then have seven pill-free days.

After you have taken all 21 pills in the strip, you have seven days when you take no pills. So if you take the last pill of one pack on a Friday, you will take the first pill of your next pack on the Saturday of the following week. Within a few days of taking the last pill from the strip, you should have a withdrawal bleed like a period. This bleed may not have finished when it is time to start your next strip of pills. You don't need to use extra contraception during these seven pill-free days - as long as you have taken your pills correctly and start the next strip of pills on time. 

Then start your next strip.

Start taking your next strip of Femodette after the seven pill-free days - even if you are still bleeding. Always start the new strip on time. 

As long as you take Femodette correctly, you will always start each new strip on the same day of the week.

Each box of Femodette contains 21 white sugar-coated tablets containing 75mg of the progestogen gestodene, and 20mg of the oestrogen ethinylestradiol.

The inactive ingredients are: lactose, maize starch, povidone, magnesium stearate, sucrose, macrogol 6000, calcium carbonate, talc, montan glycol wax.