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.

If you miss more than 1 coloured pill, or if you don’t start a new strip immediately after the previous one, you should contact a clinician straight away.

If you’ve missed 1 pill and are more than 12 hours late in taking it on days 1 to 9 of your cycle, what you do next depends on whether you’ve had sex during the week before forgetting to take your pill. If you have had sex during the week before, you should get in touch with a prescriber immediately. If you haven’t had sex during the week before, take the missed pill and take any pills that follow as usual, even if it means taking two pills on the same day. You should also use additional contraception, such as a condom, for the next 9 days.

If you miss 1 pill and are more than 12 hours late in taking it on days 10-17 of your cycle, take the missed pill as soon as you remember and any further pills as you would normally, which may mean taking two pills in one day. Use a barrier method such as a condom for the following 9 days.

In the event that you miss 1 pill and are over 12 hours late in taking it on days 18-24 of your cycle, don’t take the missed pill. Start a new strip immediately and use extra contraception, like a condom, for the next 9 days.

If you miss 1 pill and are more than 12 hours late on days 25-26 of your cycle, take the pill you missed and any subsequent pills as normal, even if it means taking two on the same day. You don’t need to use any further contraception.

If you miss 1 pill and are over 12 hours late in taking it on days 27-28 of your cycle, discard the pill you have missed and take any pills that follow as you would usually. No additional contraception is required.

You can usually delay your period by taking packs of pills back to back. But because Qlaira contains different quantities of hormones for various phases of your cycle, you need to take the pills in the correct order. You should speak to a licensed clinician before using Qlaira for this purpose, then.

Each strip is made up of 2 pills which are dark yellow and contain 3mg estradiol valerate, 5 pills which are medium red and contain 2mg estradiol valerate and 2mg dienogest, 17 pills which are light yellow and contain 2mg estradiol valerate and 3mg dienogest, and 2 pills which are dark red and contain 1mg estradiol valerate.

The two white pills are inactive and don’t contain any active ingredients.

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.

It’s rare that women experience severe side effects with the combined pill, but if you get any signs of a blood clot, for example (throbbing or cramping pain, swelling, redness and warmth in the leg or arm, feeling out of breath suddenly, sharp chest pain, and a cough or coughing up blood) you should seek emergency treatment immediately. You can find more information about this in the patient leaflet that comes with your pill.

In some instances, the combined pill can be quite effective at tackling acne.^[1] But it can also be a side effect of the pill, so its impact may vary from woman to woman.

It should be noted though that Qlaira isn’t prescribed for acne first and foremost, so if you’re looking to use it for this, you should speak to our clinician about it during your EveAdam consultation.

There’s no evidence to say that it does.^[2] You may notice that your weight fluctuates a bit during your cycle due to an increase in fluid retention in the body, but any weight gain isn’t significant, and is usually only temporary.

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.

Which of the two is better for you depends on what hormones you’re better suited to. Our clinician can talk you through both options during your consultation.

We’re keeping it hassle-free.

Just log into your EveAdam account, and you can switch whenever you want. Send a message to our prescriber and they can advise you on pills that could be more appropriate for you, depending on any symptoms or side effects you may be experiencing.