My girlfriend doesn’t take all of her pills. She says that the last seven are only sugar pills. Are we still protected?

The combined contraceptive pill (the more common pill) usually has 28 pills in total. 21 hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. The inactive pills are there to keep you in the habit of taking it every day and it is true that it is not actually necessary to take them.

However, progestogen-only pills are all hormonal pills so check which one she is taking before considering missing them out.