Emergency Contraception: Pill Chart

Plan B is the most common kind of emergency contraception. But many kinds of birth control pills can also be used as emergency contraception. 

When you take birth control pills with estrogen and progestin as emergency contraception, you must take the pills in two doses, 12 hours apart. The number of pills in each dose depends on the brand of the pill. You must use the same brand of pill for each dose.

If you become nauseous and throw up after taking the first dose of the pills, be sure to use anti-nausea medication an hour before taking the second dose. Or, instead of taking it by mouth, you can insert the second dose as high into your vagina as you can reach. The medicine will be absorbed through the walls of your vagina, and will not make you feel sick to your stomach.

If you throw up after the second dose, you should not take any extra pills. The pills will most likely make you sicker, and probably won’t reduce your chance of getting pregnant.

See below for the correct doses by brand.

Brand	First Dose (within 120 hours)	Second Dose (12 hours later)
Plan B	1 white pill	1 white pill*
Alesse	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Aviane	5 orange pills	5 orange pills
Cryselle	4 white pills	4 white pills
Enpresse	4 orange pills	4 orange pills
Jolessa	4 pink pills	4 pink pills
Lessina	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Levlen	4 light-orange pills	4 light-orange pills
Levlite	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Levora	4 white pills	4 white pills
Lo/Ovral	4 white pills	4 white pills
Low-Ogestrel	4 white pills	4 white pills
Lutera	5 white pills	5 white pills
Lybrel	6 yellow pills	6 yellow pills
Nordette	4 light-orange pills	4 light-orange pills
Ogestrel	2 white pills	2 white pills
Ovral	2 white pills	2 white pills
Portia	4 pink pills	4 pink pills
Quasense	4 white pills	4 white pills
Seasonale	4 pink pills	4 pink pills
Seasonique	4 light-blue-green pills	4 light-blue-green pills
Tri-Levlen	4 yellow pills	4 yellow pills
Triphasil	4 yellow pills	4 yellow pills
Trivora	4 pink pills	4 pink pills

*Both doses of Plan B can be taken at the same time.

Read more about emergency contraception.