Ocella Birth Control Pills

What is Ocella® Birth Control Pill?

Complete Price List of Birth Control Pills & Patches

Ocella®(drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol) birth control pill is designed to prevent pregnancy for the adult women, who are looking for oral contraceptive measures. If taken as directed, Ocella birth control pill can prevent pregnancy upto 99%. Ocella is the only FDA-approved birth control pills to treat emotional and physical symptoms that are found to be severely impact on sentiments of women who are on birth control pills for longer time. Ocella birth control pills are also preferred for the treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) symptoms, women experience most in those days. Ocella is also proved to be effective on mild acne treatment.

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How Ocella® Birth Control Pill works?
Ocella® (drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol) is combination of two hormones - an estrogen and progestin. It works in two ways to avoid pregnancy.

1. The estrogen part of the pill makes body "think" it is a pregnant and hence, prevents ovulation i.e the release of an egg from an ovary.

2. It also cause changes in cervical mucous (a slippery fluid by cervix i.e lower part of the uterus that functions as a passageway between the vagina and the uterus that collects in the cervix and vagina) us thickened making it difficult for sperm to reach the uterus and harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus.

How to take Ocella Birth Control Pills?
Ocella birth control pills come into 24/4-day dosing schedule. It contains 24 days "pink" active and 4 days "white" inactive pills where these inactive pills are reminder.

Take Ocella birth control pills as prescribed and do not overdose. Start taking first table from the first day of your period and continue taking on regular basis. Many women start their first pill from the first Sunday of their period starts for easy calculation of schedule. Punctuality in taking Ocella oral contraceptive pills is very important. It is advisable to take pill every night after the meal as it reduces the side effects such as headache, nausea, and uneasiness feeling.

Please keep the gap of 24 hours between each dose. Once this dosage is over, start taking one inactive pill everyday for 4 days. Once the 28 days dose is finished, you can continue with next 28 days package. Ocella birth control pills must be taken regularly. If it is stopped, pregnancy may occur. Hence, please keep the Ocella birth control doses refilled in your stock.

You will get your periods when you start using 4 white inactive pills. During the first you can use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) if you wish to have sex and consult with your healthcare professional or doctor for continuation of future Ocella birth control pills dosages.

Like other combination oral contraceptive pills, Ocella birth control pills keep you active on additional three days, which helps your hormone levels stay balanced for longer time. You may consult your doctor or healthcare professional to know what three additional days of active pills are meant for.

Please keep the Ocella oral contraceptive pills in dark at room temperature, avoid moisture and heat and away from the reach of children.

What to do if you think you overdose?
If you think you are overdosed, you may experience immediate vomiting after taking pills, nausea, sever headache, sever abdomen pains, restlessness, high level of frustration and emotional disorder and even excess vaginal bleeding. In such cases, stop taking next Ocella birth control dose and seek your doctor or healthcare professional's advice first prior to resume your doses.

What to do if you don't get period while taking Ocella?
If you had missed doses many times, had not used backup birth control methods and had unprotected sex then chances are, you might not get period in the last week of the third month (as it should be for women taking pills regularly). You may be pregnant now. Please consult your doctor or healthcare professional. Use of Ocella birth control pills should be discontinued until the pregnancy is ruled out.

What to do if you miss to take Ocella birth control pills?
It is very important that you must take Ocella oral contraceptive pills daily as prescribed by your physician or doctor to remain protected from unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. However, should you miss to take the scheduled pills, please take necessary steps mentioned below

A) If you miss 1 Pink "active" pill:
1. Take it immediately whenever you remember. You will also need to take next pill at your regular time. In such cases, you will be taking two Ocella birth control pills in one day.
2. You do not require using back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) if you have sex.

B) If you miss 2 Pink active pills in a row in week 1 or week 2
1. Take 2 pills when you remember on the day and two pills in the next day.
2. Continue to take one pill day onwards as prescribed.
3. Your chances of becoming pregnant will be high in this case if you have sex within 7 days after you missed your dose. You will be required to use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) for these crucial 7 days.

C) If you miss 2 Pink active pills in a row in the Week 3 In such cases, you will be required to take some serious actions to avoid pregnancy.

Either you will be a first day starter or first Sunday.

1. In case, you are first day starter when your period started on first day, your cycle of using Ocella birth control pills is very much out of the schedule. Hence, please throw out the rest of pills pack and start a new pack on the same day.

2. In case, you are a first Sunday starter, please continue taking one pill every day until Sunday. On Sunday, please throw out the rest of pills packet and start a new pack on the same day.

3. You may not have period this month but could be expected. However, if you do not have periods for two months consecutively, you might be pregnant and you need to consult your doctor immediately. 4. Your chances of becoming pregnant will be high in this case if you have sex within 7 days after you missed your dose. You will be required to use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) for these crucial 7 days.

D) If you miss 3 or more Pink active pills in all three weeks

1. If you are a first starter, throw out the rest of the pills pack and start the new pack on the same day because your cycle of using Ocella birth control pills is disturbed.

2. if you are a first Sunday starter, please continue taking one pill every day until Sunday. On Sunday, please throw out the rest of pills packet and start a new pack on the same day.

3. You may not have period this month but could be expected. However, if you do not have periods for two months consecutively, you might be pregnant and you need to consult your doctor immediately.

4. Your chances of becoming pregnant will be high in this case if you have sex within 7 days after you missed your dose. You will be required to use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) for these crucial 7 days.

E) If you miss to take 7 White inactive pills in Week 4
1. Discard the missing White inactive pills but continue to take one each White inactive pill until the seven days. Your birth control pills pack should be empty by 28th day or 7th day in Week 4

2. You do not require to use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) if you have sex.

In all cases where you missed to take Pink active birth control pills, you can use back-up birth control methods (such as condoms or spermicides) if you wish to have sex and consult with your healthcare professional or doctor for continuation of future Ocella birth control pills dosages.

Drug Interactions with Ocella Birth Control Pills :
Before using Ocella birth control, please inform your doctor if you are taking any pills including antibiotics or herbal products. Some of the drugs like antifungals, anticonvulsants and such other drugs may increase the metabolism of contraceptive steroids. This could suppress the effectiveness of birth control, increase side-effects, unintended pregnancies, break-through or bleeding. Several anti-HIV drugs may interact with metabolism of combined birth control pills and increase or decrease the estrogen and progestin hormones levels and cause serious side-effects and effectiveness of Ocella birth control. Herbal medicines and products containing St. John's Wort may aggregate hepatic enzymes (cytochrome P450) and p-glycoprotein transporter affecting the effectiveness of contraceptive steroids.

Storage:

• Store Ocella birth control pills at normal room temperature between 20-25°C (68-77°F). which are the most ideal temperature for storing pills.
• Excursion limit for is between 15 to 30°C (i.e between 59-86°F)
• Keep them away from the direct sunlight, excess heat
• Don't keep in bathroom and avoid moisture
• Keep them out of reach of the children.
• Throw away unused and expired medicines immediately
  

Benefits of Ocella Birth Control Pills :
FDA-approved Ocella birth control pills offer you many additional benefits than other birth control pills. Its benefits can be described as below

1. Ocella®(drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol) is the only FDA-approved birth control pills to treat emotional and physical symptoms that are found to be severely impact on sentiments of women who are on birth control pills for longer time. Ocella birth control pills are also preferred for the treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) symptoms, such as anxiety, uneasiness, depression, frustration, mood changes, lack of concentration, lack of energy, sleeplessness, lack of appetite, joint-pains, headache, abdominal pain, bloating and weight gains, women experience most in those days.

2. Ocella is effective in treatment of mild acne vulgaris in women at least 14 years of age, who have no known contradictions to oral contraceptive side effects, and have achieved menarche. The progestin hormone controls male sex hormones (androgen) that causes acne. However, Ocella oral contraceptive can only be used for acne treatment if patient is on birth control treatment.

3. Ocella has unique hormone, drsp® or drospirenone (pronounced dros-peer-eh-known). While other combination birth control pills have a progestin made from the male hormone testosterone, the drsp in Ocella is an analogue of the aldosterone antagonistspironolactone and contains mild antimineralocorticoid properties, similar to natural progesterone. Ask your healthcare professional about the unique properties of drsp to know more about its benefits and side-effects.

Advantages of Ocella® birth control pills :

Use of Ocella pills will provide following benefits
- Ocella helps in regularizing the menstrual cycles. You get more regular, lighter and shorter periods. Due to this, you will not suffer anemia or iron deficiency

- Ovarian Cysts
Ocella birth control prevents ovulation and hence, you are less risky for noncancerous or benign ovarian cysts. Longer you use, more you will be protected.
- Endometrial cancer
It reduces the risk of endometrial cancer i.e endometrial is creation of lining of the uterus and where cancer develops. Use of Ocella birth control pills for long years reduces the chances of endometrial cancer. Even if the dose is stopped, you can still remain protected.
- Ovarian Cancer
Like endometrial cancer, Ocella combination oral contraceptive pills help reducing the chances of occurring ovarian cancer significantly. Longer you use, more you will be protected. Studies have showed that continuous use of Ocella birth control pills for two years has significantly reduced the chances of ovarian cancer whereas ten year usage reduce chances of getting ovarian cancer almost very rare.
- Breast cysts or lumps
Ocella helps in controlling breast tenderness, cysts or lumps unlike side-effects of other non-combination birth control pills
- Ocella also helps in having shorter, lighter and more regular periods, which results in lesser amount of blood loss, reduces less iron losses and significantly lowers the risks of anemia.
- It is the only birth control pill that contains drospirenone, a progestin not derived from testosterone, which is beneficial for your health than other ordinary birth control pill
- It helps in controlling the weights so sudden weight gain or loss could be minimal in many cases.

Ocella® Side Effects :
Oral contraceptives do have side effects, so is Ocella birth control pills. Women using Ocella birth control may experience following side effects:

- Ocella does not protect from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or HIV
- Women over 35 years of age and smoking are strictly not advised to take Ocella or any other oral contraceptives as it may increase the chances of cardiovascular side effects including blood clots, stroke, and heart attack.
- During the initial treatment of Ocella birth control pills, women (greater than 1%) may experience side effects like headache, breast tenderness, upper respritory vaginal yeast infection and excessive vaginal discharge.
- Women using Ocella birth control pills during premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) may experience intermenstrual bleeding, breast pain, headache, nausea, upper respiratory infection, suspicious Pap smear and loss of strength.
- Ocella birth control pills are not advisable for breast-feeding mothers. Hormones in pills can pass into breast milk and harm baby. It may also slow down the milk production.
- Ocella has unique hormone, drsp® or drospirenone (pronounced dros-peer-eh-known), which may increase the level of potassium. This may cause serious health hazards for women suffering from kidney, liver or adrenal diseases such as heart problems or stroke. If you are already on medical treatment for heart or cardiovascular disease or chronic inflammatory diseases, please consult with your doctor or healthcare professional before taking Ocella birth control pills. In any case, it is advisable for women to check their potassium levels before taking Ocella birth control pills for birth control treatment.

Few examples of cardiovascular or chronic inflammatory drugs that may increase potassium :

NSAIDs-ibuprofen (Motrin®, Advil®), naproxen (Naprosyn®, Aleve®, and others) when taken long-term and daily for arthritis or other diseases or conditions, Potassium-sparing diuretics (spironolactone and others), Potassium supplementation, ACE inhibitors (Capoten®, Vasotec®, Zestril®, and others), Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists (Cozaar®, Diovan®, Avapro®, and others), Aldosterone Antagonists, and Heparin.

Ocella Birth Control Pills Precautions before use :
Before using Ocella birth control pills, please take following precautions
- don't take Ocella if you are pregnant
- don't use Ocella if you are already a breast-feeding mother
- don't smoke specially women above 35 years of age as it may increase the chances of cardiovascular side effects including blood clots, stroke, and heart attack.
- migraine headache, nausea, upper respiratory infection, yeast infection
- over-weight and experience sudden weight gain
- not yet started having menstrual periods
- excess or unusual vaginal bleeding

Please tell your doctor if you have any of the following medical history

- liver or kidney diseases and you are on treatment
- high blood pressure, heart or cardiovascular disease or chronic inflammatory diseases
- if you were on birth control treatment before and have taken any other pills or drugs
- suffering from high cholesterol
- suffering from breast, uterine or hormone-dependent cancer
- history of depression
- high level of potassium
- history of irregular menstrual cycles
- suffering from diabetes
- having history of adrenal glad disease
- seizures or epilepsy or if you have been operated in the past
- please consult your doctor or healthcare professional if you are taking any drugs or medicines, which may interact with the Ocella birth control reactions. So, if you are on any medical treatment for any reason, please consult your doctor or healthcare professional before taking Ocella birth control pills.