The girls' guide to getting some privacy on your parents' health insurance
As my otherwise awesome parents are pretty conservative about, well, everything, I don’t want them to know what type of birth control I’m using or when I get tested for STIs and HIV (twice a year, if you’re interested). When I was in college I paid for these things out-of-pocket or put them off until free services were offered at my university because I didn’t want my parents getting a play by play when they saw our health insurance information. Clearly it wasn’t an ideal situation…
There are lots of things you can do for National Women’s Health Week, but we say be proud if you start with just a couple. And if you’d like more detail about how the Affordable Care Act could affect your birth control coverage, check out the article the National Women’s Law Center wrote for us laying it all out.
Voice your opinion about birth control to help make the process of choosing a method easier!
A team of researchers, clinicians, and patient representatives from or working with Dartmouth College are asking women to take a 10-minute anonymous online survey on how they make decisions about birth control. (It’s linked above. And here, again.) The team wants to use what they learn from the survey to develop a tool that will help women and their healthcare providers communicate and collaborate better on the birth control decision-making process. (A very worthy cause in our humble opinions.) In the team’s own words:
We know it can be difficult for women and healthcare providers to have a conversation about which method best suits a woman’s particular lifestyle, finances, and preferences. And, it can be tough to find trustworthy and easy-to-understand information that explains the benefits and drawbacks of different methods.
If you’re a woman between 15 and 45 years old who: uses or is interested in learning about contraception, lives in the United States, and is comfortable reading and writing English, please take a few minutes to share your views and priorities relating to birth control.
PS—The research team is also looking for healthcare providers who offer contraception counseling or prescriptions, live in the United States, and are comfortable reading and writing English to complete a 10-minute anonymous online survey about helping patients make decisions about contraception.
Action Alert: Support birth control with no co-pays? Tomorrow's the last day to make your voice heard!
If you support making birth control more accessible and affordable for U.S. women, the Obama Administration needs to hear from you now. They’re asking for comments on a compromise to get coverage for women who work for certain organizations with religious objections to birth control while also respecting those objections. And the commenting period closes tomorrow, April 8th.
Get details and proposed language to take action through The National Campaign’s policy portal. Or, if you already know what you want to say in your comment, you can go straight to the comments form.* Then spread the word!
For some background on what the new health care law means for women with insurance, check out the article the National Women’s Law Center wrote about it for Bedsider.
* Note: the comments you submit will be publicly available on regulations.gov.
Action Alert: Support birth control with no co-pays? Make your voice heard!
If you think making birth control more accessible and affordable for U.S. women is a good thing, the Obama Administration needs to hear from you. They’re asking for comments on a new compromise to get coverage for women who work for certain organizations with religious objections to birth control while also respecting those objections. Get all the details and take action through The National Campaign’s policy portal. Then spread the word!
For more background on what the new health care law means for women with insurance, check out the article the National Women’s Law Center wrote about it for Bedsider.
Say what? Woman got pregnant after mistakenly taking prenatal vitamins instead of the pill...
Now that’s scary. A Wisconsin woman attempted to sue a clinic that accidentally gave her prenatal vitamins instead of her birth control pill, causing her to get pregnant. The court ruled that the clinic would not have to pay to raise the child up to age 18, though they did leave open the possibility of suing for pain and suffering.
We seriously feel for this woman—but we can’t help wondering what kind of prenatal vitamins look enough like the pill to fool whoever prescribed them at the clinic and the woman who took them for almost a month before returning to the clinic with questions. Time for a redesign, perhaps?
Bedsider’s #1 Tip for Financial Wellness Month…
With the first month of 2013 winding down, plenty of us have already broken our New Year’s resolutions. But if getting your finances in check was one of yours, don’t despair—January is Financial Wellness Month and there’s still time to start the year off right.
You don’t have to be as into birth control as we are to get that it’s a super-important piece of the financial wellness pie. The awesome news? As our friends at the National Women’s Law Center recently laid out for us, most health insurance plans are now required to cover contraception without co-pays or deductibles. That means that if you have insurance, cost shouldn’t be a factor in deciding which birth control method is right for you.
For folks who don’t have insurance, super-effective birth control may still be a worthwhile investment. And your state or community might just offer programs to help women get low-cost (or free!) birth control.
Our #1 tip for Financial Wellness Month? Spend some time today or tomorrow making sure you’re covered in the birth control department, then head into February with those adorable piggy banks of yours in a row.
A break is definitely the best thing for your body right after a pregnancy, but if you’re not exclusively breastfeeding in a very particular way, you can ovulate (or release an egg) as soon as three weeks after birth. So what’s a new mom to do? For starters, I’d recommend looking into the IUD, the implant, or the shot for birth control. All three of these methods are low-maintenance, effective, safe for new moms, and totally fine to use while breastfeeding.
Take action to expand Medicaid coverage in your state!
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is working with states to give more low-income Americans the chance to get healthcare through Medicaid. If every state expands Medicaid to the level proposed by the ACA, it could mean coverage for roughly 15 million people currently without insurance. Most states are deciding now whether to expand. Make your voice heard and spread the word!
Method Monday: IUDs!
Okay, we confess. We talk about this method a lot. But considering how many points the IUD has in its favor (Super-effective! Reversible! Long-lasting! Low-maintenance! …!!!!!), and how much misinformation is still out there about it, we just feel there’s still plenty to be said. Like what? So glad you asked…
- The IUD is the longest-lasting non-permanent birth control method available in the U.S.—and by long-lasting, we’re talking anywhere from 7 to 12* years, depending on which kind you get. That’s how long the IUD can protect you from pregnancy, but if you decide you want to get pregnant after 3 years (or 1 year, or two months…), you can have the IUD removed anytime and should return to your normal fertility level pretty much immediately.
- There are two kinds of IUD—one called Mirena, which works because of a low dose of the hormone progestin, and one called ParaGard that contains no hormones whatsoever and works thanks to a small amount of copper.
- The ParaGard IUD is the only super-effective non-hormonal birth control option—it lasts for up to 12 years and it’s eco-friendly!
- IUD insertion can hurt a little (or a lot, depending on the person), but most IUD users—even those on the “a lot” side of the spectrum—say it’s well worth the pain.
- The ParaGard IUD can be used for emergency contraception (EC) within 5 days of unprotected sex—in fact, it’s by far the most effective EC option available! Unfortunately, it seems like not a lot of people know that…
- Until recently, IUDs had a bad rap in the U.S., which is probably why they’re not as commonly used here as they are in other countries. Two groups in the U.S. who are more likely to use an IUD? Gynecologists (lady docs are 3 times more likely than the average U.S. woman to have an IUD) and participants in the Contraceptive CHOICE project in St. Louis, who were counseled on different birth control methods and then given their pick of the methods for free. Fortunately more and more U.S. women are getting the message that the new models are safe and super-effective and are deciding to give it a shot.
- There are lots of persistent rumors about who can use the IUD and who can’t—and most of them aren’t true. Even some health care providers aren’t up to date when it comes to IUDs, so if your provider discourages you from considering it, check out Nurse Lola’s great (read: hilarious) suggestions for how to deal.
- Another rumor about the IUD is that it’s super expensive—but it may be more affordable than you think. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many insured folks should now (or soon) be able to get any FDA-approved birth control method without co-pays or deductibles. If you don’t have insurance, there may be other programs in your state to help you get the birth control you want without breaking the bank. And even if you have to pay for the IUD, it might still be worth it cost-wise if you’re planning to have it for a while.
Don’t take our word for it—there are lots of IUD users who’ve shared their stories in writing and on video. Here are a few to get you started.
And now, your moment of awkward, IUD-related zen.
*NOTE: Mirena’s manufacturers say it lasts up to 5 years, but in Europe it’s approved for up to 7. ParaGard’s manufacturers claim it can be used for up to 10 years, but studies have shown it’s effective for up to 12. For more on why manufacturers’ labels might not always reflect the latest research, check out our article “What’s in a birth control label?”
