I'm no doctor, but your logic seems right. Pills become ineffective when you miss more than one day or take a medication that interferes with them. I don't see why taking them a couple days early would do that. After all, not many people have a perfect 28-day cycle. I know women who have skipped the period week and started taking their next pack due to a wedding or big event, under doctor supervision. I wouldn't recommend it often, but I don't think this once is gonna hurt.

I think you are correct. The effectiveness would only decrease if you started the pack 2 days later, not earlier. You are not ovulating during the week of sugar pills so you can't get pregnant. You could say the same thing about taking packs back to back. You don't ovulate, you just allow that time for menstruation. All you did was cut that time short.

And I should probably mention that I'm not a doctor or pharmacist, but I do know a lot about BC.

I agree with Riotgrrl, the only way you could have lowered the effectiveness is if you took them 2 days later than you were supposed to, not two days earlier. And I know plenty of people who skip periods and of course there is Seasonale.

*disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, but I've been on the pill for a really long time*

I would be comfortable saying that your logic is sound. The pharmacist is probably trying to cover his or her ass, telling you to follow directions exactly. I've found my doctor to be more knowledgeable about changing my pill schedule. Now of course, missing pills = bad, bad news. But I think what you did was fine.

MY birth control doesn't include the set of inactive pills. It only requires me to take a break of seven days.

However, I only do that about four times a year, because I don't feel a particular need to bleed from my crotch regularly. Thus I simply don't take that break at all. I suppose that would be similar to you skipping the inactive pills.

No, the pills' efficiency will not be affected, by shortening the break/period with inactive pills or completely skipping the break altogether. It will simply mean you won't get your menstruation.

yeah your pharmacist doesn't know what she's talking about - I am also not a doctor(do have my degree in Biology) but it is perfectly SAFE to start the next pack earlier. My doctor actually changed my BC prescription (beacuse I was pleading for fewer periods) so that I take 2 packs back-to-back(and I don't just do this for a big event, its perfectly safe to do year round). Heck, I don't even take the sugar pills when I have my week of "menstration" because they do absolutely nothing. It has long been known that many health professionals already prescribe themselves year-round birth control and never have a period - while this sounds strange it's perfectly safe. The only reason BC's have the week of sugar pills is because its too strange of an idea to not menstrate that people are uncomfortable with it. - However the truth is if you are constantly on BC those are actually fake periods (because remember you stopped the ovulation from happnening in the first place!). So biologically month to month BC is almost the same as 365 day BC.

My doctor has told me to actually skip the inactive pills before (once when I was going on vacation, once when I had an appointment), so unless my doctor was trying to get me pregnant, I'm pretty sure you're correct.

I'm sure that it messes with your hormones a little bit, but I doubt that it would suddenly make the pills ineffective.