of her contraception that was a problem, but her OB was insisting on six month checkups without giving her a reason why. (If he thought she was in danger of getting an STD and needed frequent testing, he should have told her so.) This was before mandatory payment of well-woman exams, so she was out an additional $80 to get another 6 month extension on her pills.

I recommended that she find another doctor if he wouldn't explain why she needed 6 month checkups.

for actually buying the contraception, or having to carry a fetus and baby.

Last edited Mon Feb 13, 2012, 08:03 AM - Edit history (1)

If you read in context, (edit--and if I would read what I post!!) you will see that they are talking about the difficulty of obtaining reliable and affordable contraception. You will also see, if you click on the link, accounts from other women, describing their difficulties in obtaining protection they could afford.

It's a very good article on the topic, which is why I posted it. It is an entirely female perspective on the issue.

I need to EDIT because I suffered a bit of tunnel vision, here--I was busily looking at the comments of the editors of this piece, who are women, and ignoring the idiot they were riffing on, who made the original "show me" comment.

Please excuse my fluffing over of my own OP and wagging a finger, I was wrong to do that--I haven't been getting enough sleep lately!

accounts of how difficult it is to get contraception and specialized women's healthcare without various types of support, including insurance, access, etc. In fact, I recall posting about a few situations that I've come across over the last 30 years, none if them "easy" for the woman.

this country is full of cave men.

Folks like Price simply cannot imagine that something such as $50 a month is a big deal for many women/couples. Some good stories there at the link.

I do think it is a bit of a problem that there's this assumption that women must take some sort of hormone product for safe and effective birth control. My wife and I were married in 1998, and the pill had always given her terrible headaches, so in 1999 she went off the pill. Yes, a pregnancy would be inconvenient, but we had good insurance and steady income and wanted kids eventually, so we started using withdrawal.

That worked so well that, by 2004, when we decided to start "trying" to have kids, my wife budgeted a year to try, after which time we would give up without clinical intervention. Because, after all, withdrawal is so terribly ineffective statistically that there must be somthing wrong with us. Except that she got pregnant the first time I didn't pull out, and our son was born in early 2005. Did withdrawal again until 2008, when we decided to try again, and she again became pregnant the first time, this time with a girl. Then I got a vasectomy, for which our insurance paid the princely sum of $7,500, for a 20-minute procedure, which I am sure they were happy to pay because that's a fraction of what another pregnancy would have cost.

At any rate, there obviously wasn't anything wrong with us. Withdrawal did work, but we didn't have sex on her most fertile days. Turns out those were the times she wanted sex the most. Probably also helped that her cycle was always really regular, even without the pill. Also, there are other things you can do.

There are a lot of other unasked questions in these stories.

--Why is birth control pill so damn expensive? They have been making this product for my entire lifetime. I'm sure their cost is very low.

--Why are copays for birth control so damn high? When you compare the cost of birth control to the cost of prenatal care, labor and delivery and the subsequent care for child and mother, it's a bargain to the insurer.

copays were pure profit, I'd wager.

why they keep coming out with these "new and improved" pills and devices. Just like any other pharmaceutical, they take an existing drug, tweak it a tiny bit, and get a new patent and jack up the price. Then they promote the hell out of it to patients and doctors, even when there's nothing obvious to reccomend it over the old product, which is now available as a generic.

Then they put a few stripes on it and called it Nexium, after the patent wore off, it went "generic" and it no longer cost five bucks a pop! Then they launch a whole new set of commercials telling the sheep why they need to "ask their doctor" about this shit.

Baastids!