Birth control pill

If you’re under the influence of alcohol—or anything else—a birth control method that doesn’t require action right when you’re about to get your freak on may be your safest bet. Fortunately, there are plenty of options. Note: These methods will cover you against pregnancy, but you should pair them with a condom for STI protection.

And speaking of covering all your bases, here are some tips for safer, smarter hookups.

If you have endometriosis (a condition where tissue grows outside of your uterus instead of inside it), hormonal birth control can do wonders to lessen your symptoms. There are a bunch of hormonal methods that can help regulate your periods, decrease bleeding, or even make your period go away completely.

Having “loose” poop every now and then probably won’t affect how well your pill works, but severe diarrhea (eg. if you have it several times in one day) might. If you rely on the pill for birth control and you have severe diarrhea, it’s a good idea to use a backup method like condoms if you have sex while you’re sick or in the 7 days after you recover.

The pill’s effectiveness depends on how consistently someone takes it. When used perfectly, the pill is more than 99% effective. But most of us aren’t perfect, so the pill’s effectiveness tends to be closer to 91%.

In other words:

Of those women who use the pill exactly as directed, fewer than 1 in 100 will experience an accidental pregnancy during the first year of using this method.

Of those women who do not use the pill exactly as directed, about 9 in 100 will experience an accidental pregnancy during the first year of using this method.