Someone asked us:

Will smoking cigarettes make my birth control shot less effective?

Smoking cigarettes doesn’t make the birth control shot less effective at preventing pregnancy. You might have heard some rumors about how you shouldn’t smoke while using birth control. We’ll spare you the stuff you already know about how bad for your health smoking is —the truth is that smoking won’t make birth control less effective.

You may have heard that with some types of birth control, smoking can increase the risk of certain extremely rare side effects. That’s why smokers who are over age 35, have high blood pressure or other risk factors, are often advised not to use the combination birth control pill, patch or ring — which contain both estrogen and progestin (the shot only has progestin). But smoking doesn’t decrease the effectiveness of any birth control method.

-Alex at Planned Parenthood