Whether alcohol affects your birth control really depends on what method you’re using. If you rely on birth control that requires you to use it before you have sex, like condoms or a diaphragm, then alcohol may make it harder for you to use your method correctly or to remember to use it at all. Here’s more detail about how alcohol can affect sex and birth control.
- Birth control
- Diaphragm
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Birth Control
Diaphragm

Can drinking alcohol affect my birth control?
Whether alcohol affects your birth control really depends on what method you’re using. If you rely on birth control that requires you to use it before you have sex, like condoms or a diaphragm, then alcohol may make it harder for you to use your method correctly or to remember to use it at all. Here’s more detail about how alcohol can affect sex and birth control.
Want to learn more?
How effective is the diaphragm at preventing pregnancy?
The diaphragm is a pretty effective method. For those who use it perfectly every single time they have sex, it’s around 84% effective. For the typical user (and by typical, we mean the way most end up using it), effectiveness is closer to 83%.
In other words:
For people who use the diaphragm exactly as directed for a year, about 16 in 100 will get pregnant when they don’t want to during the first year they use the diaphragm.
For people who use the diaphragm as people typically use it, about 17 in 100 will get pregnant when they don’t want to during the first year they use the diaphragm.
The diaphragm is a pretty effective method. For those who use it perfectly every single time they have sex, it’s around 84% effective. For the typical user (and by typical, we mean the way most end up using it), effectiveness is closer to 83%.
In other words:
For people who use the diaphragm exactly as directed for a year, about 16 in 100 will get pregnant when they don’t want to during the first year they use the diaphragm.
For people who use the diaphragm as people typically use it, about 17 in 100 will get pregnant when they don’t want to during the first year they use the diaphragm.
Want to learn more?

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