Synphase

Synphase is what’s known as a ‘biphasic’ combined pill, which means it’s a pill that has two different doses of hormones in it. So there are two types of pill in each strip that contain the same amount of oestrogen, but slightly different amounts of progesterone.

The doses that you take change part of the way through your cycle, to mimic the body’s natural hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle.

Although there are only two different doses of hormones in Synphase pills, you take these doses over three phases. It’s a 21 day pill, so you start by taking 7 blue pills of 500mcg norethisterone, followed by 9 white pills of 1mg norethisterone, and then 5 blue pills of 500mcg norethisterone.

Synphase reduces your risk of pregnancy in three different ways.

The ovaries prepare the body for pregnancy by releasing an egg, so that the egg can be fertilised by sperm. The combined pill stops the ovaries from doing this, which helps to prevent fertilisation from happening.

The pill also makes the mucus in the cervix thicker, and this makes it harder for sperm to reach an egg.

The lining of the uterus does the opposite. It’s made thinner, which makes it harder for a fertilised egg to embed itself there and develop into a baby.

If you take it at the same time each day and don’t miss any pills, it’s over 99% effective.^[1]

This means if 100 women take it over 12 months, only one will get pregnant. This is referred to as ‘perfect use’.

But if you make mistakes when you use it, or if you miss pills from time to time, its effectiveness dips slightly to about 91%. So around nine in every 100 women will become pregnant in a year. This is sometimes known as ‘typical use’.

Each Synphase strip contains 21 pills, and each pill is marked with a row of bubbles indicating the days of the week. When you take your first pill, you should press the bubble for the day of the week you have started taking the pills on.

Take one pill each day, at the same time, in the correct order. You can take Synphase either with or without food.

If you take your first pill on the first day of your period, you’ll be protected from pregnancy immediately. If you don’t start taking Synphase on the first day of your period, you can start on days 2-5 of your cycle, but you will need to use additional contraception such as a condom for the first 7 days.

Once you’ve used all 21 pills, take a 7-day, pill-free break. It’s likely that you’ll experience bleeding during this time.

Having taken a 7-day break, start the next strip of pills, regardless of whether you’re still bleeding or not. You’ll always start a new strip on the same day of the week. Your protection from pregnancy remains the same during the 7-day pill-free window (provided that you always start a new strip on time).

If you’re less than 12 hours late taking a pill, take the pill as soon as you remember and any pills that follow at the usual time, even if it means taking two pills in one day. Your protection from pregnancy will not be compromised in any way.

In the event that you’re more than 12 hours late taking one or more pills, take the pill you missed most recently and take any further pills as normal. You may be at risk of pregnancy though, so you should either avoid having sex for seven days, or use an extra barrier method of contraception, such as condoms, for the next seven days.

If you’ve missed a pill and find that there are less than seven pills left in the strip, you should complete the strip and then start the next strip without taking a seven day, pill-free break. You might not experience a period until the end of the second strip in these circumstances, but this is normal. You may get some bleeding on the days that you take these pills too.

When you’re taking Synphase, you may find that your periods become more irregular, and that you notice some bleeding between periods. They can also become lighter, and there may be times on the pill-free days where you don’t experience any bleeding at all.

If you have any concerns about your periods whilst you’re taking the combined pill, just let our clinician know.