What steps must be taken to change my birth control prescription to a different one?
You’ll need to make an appointment with your health care provider. You can talk to her or him about any issues you’re having with your current birth control method, and what you’d like to change. People switch their birth control for lots of reasons. It might be that your current birth control has some side effects that you really don’t like. Or maybe you want to switch from the pill to the shot or the IUD, or vice versa. Your health care provider can talk through all this stuff with you, and help you find a birth control method that works for you.
By the way, it can take about three months for your body to adjust to a new type of hormonal birth control. So if you recently started using your current method and you’re thinking of switching because of side effects, you may want to wait a couple months. And then if you do switch, give yourself some time to adjust and decide how you like it. Be sure to talk with your health care provider about not getting pregnant while you’re in the process of switching. Depending on what you’re switching from and to, you might need to use back up birth control, like a condom, for a bit before your new method starts working.