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Qlaira is a combined contraceptive pill, which just means that it contains two hormones that work in the same way as progesterone and oestrogen in the body. These hormones change your menstrual cycle slightly to stop you from becoming pregnant.
With an EveAdam subscription plan, you can get combined pills like Qlaira online. We’re making it easy. And convenient. Having had a consultation with one of our registered clinicians, they’ll provide you with a prescription for Qlaira, which is dispensed by our pharmacy. You can choose how often you’d like to receive your pill, and the quantity of pills too.
We’ll deliver it to your door by special courier, and hey presto. No fuss.
Qlaira prevents you from getting pregnant in three ways.
During ovulation, an egg is released from the ovaries, ready to be fertilised by sperm. But the two hormones in Qlaira stop this from happening, and so protect you from getting pregnant.
The two hormones in the pill also thicken the mucus in the cervix. Yep. Doesn’t sound too pretty. It does make it harder for sperm to travel through the cervix to reach an egg though, meaning you’re much less likely to get pregnant. So that’s a win.
The lining of the uterus is also tweaked. It builds up during your cycle, and then breaks down again once you have your period. The combined pill makes the lining thinner however, making it more difficult for a fertilised egg to attach itself to it, and grow. This can make your periods lighter too, and less painful.
Qlaira is a ‘quadriphasic’ pill. But let’s put the medical journal down. Speaking plainly, it’s a combined pill that contains four different amounts of hormones in each strip, with each amount a different colour (in this case, five colours for four quantities of hormones, as two of the pills are placebos).
Taking various quantities of hormones across your cycle can help to keep your hormone levels steady.
You take Qlaira for 28 days (so 26 active pills followed by two inactive pills), so it’s an ‘everyday’ pill. You don’t take any pill-free breaks between strips.
Very very. So long as you take it as you should.
If you take it at the same time each day, and don’t miss any pills, it’s over 99% effective. So if 100 women take it this way over 12 months, only 1 will fall pregnant.
But if you miss pills from time to time (it’s easy to do) or if you don’t take it as instructed, your risk of pregnancy increases slightly. Its effectiveness drops to about 91%. So around 9 women in every 100 will get pregnant every year.
You’ll get immediate protection from pregnancy if you start taking Qlaira on the first day of your period.
Take 1 pill every day for 26 days, at the same time each day, and then take the two inactive white pills on days 27 and 28 of your cycle. You can take the pills with or without food, and with water if you’d prefer.
To make it easier for you to stay on top of which pills to take and when, there are 7 weekday sticker strips marked with the 7 days of the week. Select the weekday sticker strip in accordance with the day you start taking your first pill on. So if you start your strip on a Wednesday, use the weekday sticker strip that starts with ‘WED’.
Stick the weekday sticker strip along the top of the Qlaira wallet where it says, ‘Place weekday sticker strip here’, so that the first day is above the pill marked ‘1’. You should follow the direction of the arrow on the strip until you’ve taken all 28 pills.
You tend to experience a withdrawal bleed when you are taking the second dark red pill or the white pills, and you may still be bleeding by the time you’re ready to start a new strip, or even having already started your next strip. This is normal and nothing to worry about. You should start a new strip immediately after the previous one, without leaving any gaps. If you follow this routine, you are protected from pregnancy even when you take the two inactive pills at the end of a strip.
Headache, abdominal pain, nausea, no periods, painful periods and heavy irregular bleeding are all common side effects with Qlaira.
These side effects usually only last for a few weeks, and don’t tend to be serious. But if you find that they persist, or if they are causing you more discomfort, send our clinician a message via your EveAdam account.
You should always read the patient information leaflet that comes with your pill before you use it. Although you may not experience any side effects, it’s important to be aware of them.
Yasmin is a 21-day pill, so you take it for 21 days and then have a 7-day, pill-free break. It’s a little different to Qlaira then, which is a 28-day pill that you take every day, without a pill-free window.
It also contains different hormones. Yasmin has ethinylestradiol, a type of oestrogen, and drospirenone, a type of progesterone, in it, whereas Qlaira contains estradiol and dienogest. Unlike Qlaira, which is a quadriphasic pill made up of different quantities of hormones, Yasmin only contains one dose. These kinda pills are called monophasic pills.
Both pills are made by Bayer though, so they’re both branded products which you’ll see the same company label on.
You should read the patient information leaflet that comes with your pill before you start taking Qlaira.
Let our clinician know if anything isn’t clear. They should be able to answer any questions you’ve got.
Like other combined pills, Qlaira can interact with other forms of medication, and it may not be as effective as it should be if it’s taken alongside other treatments.
If you’re using, or have recently used, other medications, you should make our prescriber aware of these during your EveAdam consultation.
