i'm pretty sure it's protected, i'm not sure of how exactly but my wife is paraniod as shit of having another kid, so she got on birth control, and if i remember right when she was told there are 3 weeks of actual birthcontrol pills then the week of placebos she made damn sure you're just as protected durring that week, as you are on the other 3. i would suggest going to like webmd or something and trying to find info on how birthcontrol works, as that will probably also note that there's 3 weeks of the actual birth control and 1 week that's just placebos (i think it's so there's 1 pill a day everday so you don't forget, i think that's the only actual purpose of them) and what exactly that 1 week is for, and how it works....