Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

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Veset & extending pill cycle

7 November, 2006

Question:

I got married two months ago and started taking the pill 3 months before my wedding. I didn’t establish a veset kavua though.
We are going away this week so I have extended my use of the pill – if not I would have stopped taking the pill on Sunday but instead am continuing another cycle without a break.

What do I do about my vesatot this month?


Answer:

Mazal tov on your recent wedding!

Once a woman has been using combined hormonal contraceptives for three cycles or more, she calculates her veset days considering only what happened in her last three cycles of pills. She should note each cycle how many days passed from the last active pill until the onset of her flow (staining does not count), and what onah (day or night) the flow began, and use that as the basis for her calculations. The number of active pills she takes any particular cycle does not matter.

If indeed you have not established a veset kavua, you need only observe one veset day, based on what happened in your most recent cycle. (This is the ruling of our site’s rabbinic supervisor, Rav Kenneth Auman. Other halachic authorities may require additional veset days and you may want to ask your own Rav). For example, if in your most recent cycle you took your last active pill on a Sunday morning and your flow began Wednesday morning, then your veset day for the next cycle will be three days after your last active pill, during the daytime onah.

You can find more information regarding vesatot while a woman is manipulating her cycle with hormones here.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any further questions.

This response was updated on 8 May 2022.


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