I'm traveling to a different time zone. How can I figure out when to take my pill?

Basically, you need to figure out what time it is in your home time zone and take it at that time. For example, if you live in Washington, DC, and you travel to Spain, which is 6 hours ahead, you should take your pill 6 hours later in the day than you normally would. So if you take your pill at 9AM in DC, you should take it at 3PM in Spain.


Also, if you’re traveling long enough that you’ll be starting a new pack of pills while you’re gone, don’t forget to stick them in your suitcase!

Still not working?

If you travel a lot and like using a hormonal method, you may want to consider switching to the ring or even the patch so you won’t have to worry so much about keeping track of time zones. If you want to completely forget about time zone calculations, check out the implant or an IUD.