Is Folate (Vitamin B9) Safe with Oral contraceptives?
Free · No account · based on published sources including NIH ODS, FDA drug labels, and peer-reviewed literature
Take at least 400–800 mcg of folate (preferably methylfolate) daily while on oral contraceptives. This is especially critical if pregnancy is planned after discontinuing birth control, to reduce neural tube defect risk.
Why this interaction occurs
Oral contraceptives impair folate absorption and metabolism, reducing red blood cell and serum folate levels. Folate depletion increases homocysteine and poses significant risk for neural tube defects if conception occurs shortly after stopping the pill.
Evidence
Evidence level: strong.
Reported safety data
The FDA’s adverse event reporting system (FAERS) has received 22,854 reports mentioning Oral contraceptives. This reflects reported cases involving the medication in general — not confirmed causation, and not specific to the Oral contraceptives + supplement combination on this page.
FAERS reports are voluntary and cannot prove that a drug caused an event. Do not use report counts to assess the safety of this specific drug-supplement pair.
Frequently asked questions
Related interactions
All Folate (Vitamin B9) interactions → · All Oral contraceptives interactions →
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Educational only — not medical advice.
Always confirm with your doctor or pharmacist.