This is probably the dumbest question ever, but I don't understand how you would be able to have sex any day of the month on the pill and still not get pregnant.... i mean, you have a period once a month and there's a week in there when you aren't really taking anything but a placebo. If you're having a period, you're ovulating, so how can you still not get pregnant?

I'm confused... haha

Well the birth control pill does a few things to stop pregnancy. It tricks your body into sort of thinking you are already pregnant so therefore it does not release certain hormones and what not. Also the pill makes the cervix hard and makes it so an egg and sperm do not want to implant in the uterus. Its hard to explain from the top of my head so do some research on it online. There are more straight forward answers then mine from technical sights. But it is very possible to get pregnant on the pill. I was on ortho tricyclen lo birth control pill and am now 8 months pregnant.

The pill works in three ways. One, by suppressing ovulation. No egg means no baby. Secondly, it changes the cervical mucus so that it is not "sperm friendly", and thirdly, it thins out the lining of the uterus so that implantation of an embryo would be less likely.

You do not ovulate on the pill. The hormones in the pill suppress ovulation. You bleed on the pill because during the placebo week, the lack of hormones cause the uterine lining to break down and be shed. A period on the pill is not a "true" period, but rather is "withdrawl bleeding".

If the pill is taken perfectly (the same time each day, missing no pills, taking no interfereing substances) then failures are rare. The pill is 99.9 effective when taken perfectly.

That makes sense! I guess i just didn't realize that the period wasn't from ovulation... thanks for your answer!

Not to rain on your parade but I exist and so does my brother and we were both conceived on the pill. Granted it was the 70s and god only knows what was in the pills than. The pill is not 100% effective. All pills have inserts in the package that tell you the probability of a pregnancy if the pill is used correctly.

If you are not on the pill, ovulation occurs about 2 weeks after your period.(not during).