I think you should be fine! I mean, there is always that SLIGHT risk for pregnancy even when the pill is taken as directed but if you take it daily and on time, that risk is only 3/1000 women. Which is really pretty darn low. You should be totally fine. If you're really worried you could ask your doctor to switch you to another pill with more hormones, but I dont see the point....I mean, as you said, OTC lo is NOT the lowest pill out there. Alesse, Mircette, Levlite...those all have less estrogen in them. Also, OTC lo still has the same amount of progesterone as normal OTC...and progesterone is the thing that is mostly responsible for preventing pregnancy. That's why there are progesterone only methods like Depo or the mini-pill but no estrogen-only methods. :) Progesterone changes cervical mucus, making it thick and goopy so sperm can't get through it, and it suppresses ovulation and makes the uterine lining thin. Estrogen kinda makes the lining stronger, which is why pills with less estrogen have higher rates of break-through bleeding and why progesterone-only methods have irregular bleeding as a side effect.


The Patch and the Ring actually have less estrogen in them then OTC lo, too.

Quote from Daisies4monkeys:

I think you should be fine! I mean, there is always that SLIGHT risk for pregnancy even when the pill is taken as directed but if you take it daily and on time, that risk is only 3/1000 women. Which is really pretty darn low. You should be totally fine. If you're really worried you could ask your doctor to switch you to another pill with more hormones, but I dont see the point....I mean, as you said, OTC lo is NOT the lowest pill out there. Alesse, Mircette, Levlite...those all have less estrogen in them. Also, OTC lo still has the same amount of progesterone as normal OTC...and progesterone is the thing that is mostly responsible for preventing pregnancy. That's why there are progesterone only methods like Depo or the mini-pill but no estrogen-only methods. :) Progesterone changes cervical mucus, making it thick and goopy so sperm can't get through it, and it suppresses ovulation and makes the uterine lining thin. Estrogen kinda makes the lining stronger, which is why pills with less estrogen have higher rates of break-through bleeding and why progesterone-only methods have irregular bleeding as a side effect.


The Patch and the Ring actually have less estrogen in them then OTC lo, too.

Thanks for the info. So...what does the estrogen in the pill actually do? If the progesterone is the one key hormone that prevents the pregnancy---why do they make some pills with lower estrogen???

Is the estrogen the hormone that causes all the side effects?