Need to check your symptoms?
Use our symptom checker to help determine what your symptoms are and to ensure you get the help you need.
Check your symptomsDelayed Periods! How Late Can My Period Be After Taking Plan B?
October 22, 2021
How late can a period be after taking the morning-after pill? The morning-after pill is not the most effective method to use if you want to prevent pregnancy after unplanned sex.
But – it is easy to get hold of compared to the other methods (like the Copper coil); therefore, it’s the most common option for many people.
But after using the pill, a lot of practical questions come to light.
For instance, how to know if the pill worked and can the morning-after pill makes you miss a period?
Others are: does the morning-after pill affect your period or issues around the late period after the morning-after pill?
We will address these questions in detail in this post.
The EC pill is the method you reach for after having unplanned sex when you do not have protection. Protection means taking a regular contraception method like daily pills, implants, injections, or using a condom before sex.
Currently, after unprotected intercourse, we have two main methods for preventing an unplanned pregnancy – the emergency pills or the copper IUD.
The Copper IUD (intrauterine device) or Copper coil is a small device that an experienced health provider fits inside your womb in the clinic.
It is the most effective emergency birth control method and needs to be fitted within five days of unplanned sex or five days of ovulation.
But if you can’t get the Copper coil, the emergency contraception pill is your next best bet.
EC pills come mainly in 3 different forms.
The emergency pills work by delaying ovulation, that is, the release of an egg from the ovary.
The pill changes your hormones to prevent the release of the egg, usually till sperm from sexual activity have died off.
Since we know that sperm can remain alive in the woman for 3-5 days, the hEC pill delays ovulation for 5 days, after which you then ovulate.
If you do have sex again after the postponed ovulation happens, you could get pregnant despite the pill. Hence you must resume your regular contraception method straight away or use another emergency pill after sex.
If you take an emergency pill like Plan B, you must wait until your next period or do a pregnancy test to know if the pill worked.
The urine pregnancy test will not be positive till around 2-3 weeks after intercourse.
Your next period may come about the same time or be delayed by the pill.
In some women, it even comes earlier than usual.
Whether you rely on your period or a pregnancy test, you will need to wait a few weeks before you can tell if the pill worked or not.
So – are there any signs that Plan B didn’t work? No – there’s no way we can tell.
It would be best if you did not rely on spotting or breast soreness as signs the pill has worked or not without getting a test or speaking to your doctor.
However, there are ways you can boost the chance your pill works when you take it.
So you want to know how late can a period be without being pregnant. But can morning-after pills delay periods? Yes.
The three potential effects of the pill on your period are:
Your menstrual blood flow (period) is the time of the month when you are least likely to fall pregnant.
Typically, if you are still within reproductive age, your period follows ovulation. Both events do not happen at the same time.
While menstruating, the womb lining is not ready to receive a fertilised egg.
So even if you are least likely to fall pregnant during your periods, can you take the morning-after pill during your period?
The answer is yes. The main reason has to do with the overall length of your cycle.
You may have a short cycle and ovulate within a few days of your period.
Having sex during your period allows your partner’s sperm to remain in your womb for 5 days.
If (thanks to a short cycle) you ovulate during those 5 days, the risk of pregnancy is high.
And this is the main reason that you should take the pill as soon as possible after sex – and during your period.
The answer to this will depend on a few factors.
It is not easy to predict, but from available studies, we know that a small number of women experience their periods earlier (by over seven days) after taking the Ella pill.
20% of them had a period delay of about seven days.
In about four women out of 100, their period delay was more than 20 days. This delay happens more often when they take Ella early in their cycle (before ovulation).
For LNG pills like Plan B or Postinor, most women get their periods within seven days of the expected date.
However, in about 10 per cent, it may be delayed over seven days.
Therefore on average, you should get your period within seven days of the expected date – but it is possible to have delays for more than two weeks.
Given this information, then, what is the maximum delay in periods after taking the morning-after pill?
We don’t know. Potentially this can be different from one woman to the next. However, with a period delay of over six weeks, your doctor will consider other possibilities apart from the emergency pill.
If you are not pregnant, your doctor will check if this is related to your mental health, physical weight or other conditions that affect your hormones.
So if we ask the question – can the morning-after pill delay your period for 2 months?
Most doctors will say while this is possible, it is not common. They will recommend an examination and tests to check for other causes.
Hopefully, we’ve addressed the most common questions about period delays and other changes to the menstrual period after taking the emergency contraception pill.
Let us know in the comments if you have any more or ask here.
More Reading
Editing by AskAwayHealth Team
Disclaimer
All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising Medical Practitioners on a wide range of healthcare conditions to provide evidence-based guidance and to help promote quality healthcare.
The advice in our material is not meant to replace the management of your specific condition by a qualified healthcare practitioner.
To discuss your condition, please contact a health practitioner or reach us directly
Our post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. You are in no way obligated to use these links. Thank you for being so supportive!
Image Credits: Unsplash
Want to know how your comment data is processed? Learn more
Askawayhealth, 2023 Award Recipient
Our educational content meets the standards set by the NHS in their Standard for Creating Health Content guidance.
Askawayhealth aims to deliver reliable and evidence based women's health, family health and sexual health information in a way that is easily relatable and easy for everyone to access.
Utilize our complimentary symptom checker tool to gain more information about any uncertain symptoms you might have.
Let us know what you think