The tablet dispenser has been designed to make oral contraceptive dosing as easy and as convenient as possible. The tablets are arranged in four rows of seven tablets each, with the days of the week appearing on the tablet dispenser above the first row of tablets.

Note: Each tablet dispenser has been preprinted with the days of the week, starting with Sunday, to facilitate a Sunday-Start regimen. Six different day label stickers have been provided with the Detailed Patient & Brief Summary Patient Package Insert in order to accommodate a Day-1 Start regimen. If the patient is using the Day-1 Start regimen, she should place the self-adhesive day label sticker that corresponds to her starting day over the preprinted days.

Important: The patient should be instructed to use an additional method of protection until after the first week of administration in the initial cycle when utilizing the Sunday-Start regimen.

The possibility of ovulation and conception prior to initiation of use should be considered.

To achieve maximum contraceptive effectiveness, Microgestin Fe 1/20 should be taken exactly as directed and at intervals not exceeding 24 hours.

Microgestin Fe 1/20 provides a continuous administration regimen consisting of 21 pale yellow tablets of norethindrone acetate and ethinyl estradiol and 7 brown non-hormone containing tablets of ferrous fumarate. The ferrous fumarate tablets are present to facilitate ease of drug administration via a 28-day regimen and do not serve any therapeutic purpose. There is no need for the patient to count days between cycles because there are no "off-tablet days."

A. Sunday-Start Regimen: The patient begins taking the first pale yellow tablet from the top row of the dispenser (labeled Sunday) on the first Sunday after menstrual flow begins. When the menstrual flow begins on Sunday, the first pale yellow tablet is taken on the same day. The patient takes one pale yellow tablet daily for 21 days. The last pale yellow tablet in the dispenser will be taken on a Saturday. Upon completion of all 21 pale yellow tablets, and without interruption, the patient takes one brown tablet daily for 7 days. Upon completion of this first course of tablets, the patient begins a second course of 28-day tablets, without interruption, the next day (Sunday), starting with the Sunday pale yellow tablet in the top row. Adhering to this regimen of one pale yellow tablet daily for 21 days, followed without interruption by one brown tablet daily for seven days, the patient will start all subsequent cycles on a Sunday.

B. Day-1 Start Regimen: The first day of menstrual flow is Day 1. The patient places the self-adhesive day label sticker that corresponds to her starting day over the preprinted days on the tablet dispenser. She starts taking one pale yellow tablet daily, beginning with the first pale yellow tablet in the top row. After the last pale yellow tablet (at the end of the third row) has been taken, the patient will then take the brown tablets for a week (7 days). For all subsequent cycles, the patient begins a new 28 tablet regimen on the eighth day after taking her last pale yellow tablet, again starting with the first tablet in the top row after placing the appropriate day label sticker over the preprinted days on the tablet dispenser. Following this regimen of 21 pale yellow tablets and 7 brown tablets, the patient will start all subsequent cycles on the same day of the week as the first course.

Tablets should be taken regularly with a meal or at bedtime. It should be stressed that efficacy of medication depends on strict adherence to the dosage schedule.