Hello, and I hope I can help you today. First of all, if you ve been taking your birth control pills every day and you did have a menstrual period during the seven-day break, there is no reason to suspect that your pill is not effective in preventing pregnancy. Birth control pills can have very similar side effects to the symptoms of pregnancy in the first three months of use. These include bloating, breast tenderness, nausea, mood changes, and spotting when you re not supposed to have your period. Most women see the side effects decrease after their body gets used to the pill which takes about three months. So in your case, as long as you re taking your pills every day according to the package directions and do not have more than seven days in between packs, your chance of pregnancy is less than 1%. The most common sign of pregnancy is missing your period. So if for any reason you do not bleed during the pill free week, especially if you do not miss any pills during the month or deviate from your schedule, that would be a time where I recommend performing a pregnancy test. I hope I was able to adequately answer your question today, and that this information was helpful. Best wishes, Dr. Brown