Young women will occasionally miss a period with or without birth control pills. Continue to take your pills for another month and if you miss your period again, contact your doctor so that an adjustment can be made in your hormone dose. You should stop taking your pills and contact your doctor to determine whether or not you are pregnant. In the meantime, continue to use another form of birth control if you remain sexually active. Women who smoke should not take the pill.
Smoking increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots and death.
Women with migraine headaches and a history of blood clots should consider other forms of birth control. Women with high blood pressure should have their blood pressure under good control and monitored by a doctor regularly if they decide to use the pill for birth control. Using birth control pills should not affect your ability to become pregnant after they are discontinued. Sometimes there is a delay, however, in resuming regular cycles. Doctors usually recommend stopping the pill two to three months before conceiving in order to let your cycles become regular and normal.