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Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

nytimes.com

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Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#11

Post by ars »

"With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue."

But check the actual source and:

"Among women who had unintended births in the United States in 1998–2002, about 40% were using contraception"

So that's very misleading reporting.

Note that they tracked women for 4 years - track someone for their entire life and the numbers who had at least one child while on birth control at some point in their life will rise.

Contraception just isn't effective enough to eliminate pregnancy, it can only function to reduce fertility (number of children).

A typical couple using birth control through their entire life will still have one or two children - which is the average (more or less) of people in the US who choose to have children.

The only function of birth control is to reduce fertility from around 10 to around 2.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#12

Post by Asparagirl »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #10
tcj_phx wrote: post #2

There is a problem with birth control that the media doesn't like to talk about. While millions of women take birth control, almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects. So most women take these awful drugs only because they are seen as the best way to prevent pregnancy. Cruising over to reddit's /r/birthcontrol now, this submission was from 16 hours ago: > So because I was losing hair after…

Hundreds of millions also take those without negative side-effects.

Yes, but hundreds of millions of women also bounce around between different types of hormonal birth control (variations in pill type versus Depo shots versus NuvaRing versus Mirena versus the patch, etc.) because they have miserable experiences with physical and/or emotional side effects.

I know this is anecdata, but I know two different young healthy women who suffered strokes or Deep Vein Thrombosis before the age of thirty because of Yaz. (Both fully recovered, thank God, but will never be able to take hormonal pills again for life.)

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#13

Post by mynameislegion »

cperciva wrote: post #6
eli wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, though I was under the impression that the reasons birth control still requires a prescription is not entirely based in science.

If you take the politics and religion out of it (aka. you move outside of the USA) then some oral contraceptives require a prescription and some don't. Preventing pregnancy is quite easy -- screw with pretty much anything hormonal and you'll dramatically decrease the odds -- but doing that without causing unpleasant or dangerous side effects is much harder. Some formulations have had enough testing that we can say th…

There are plenty of patients who are "not comfortable visiting a doctor" to get birth control, but who would certainly obtain medical care if complications arose.

Some doctors require a full pelvic and breast exam for birth control prescriptions. Patients who've previously been sexually assaulted can be very uncomfortable being touched naked by anyone other than a chosen and trusted partner, but still accept the need to be treated for complications. Exam-less options are a godsend for anyone who cannot handle their first experience being with a speculum, or who need more time working through trust or intimacy issues.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#14

Post by niftich »

cperciva wrote: post #3

she used the app Nurx for birth control because she felt uncomfortable visiting a doctor Frankly, this terrifies me. Getting medication which is generally accepted to be mostly safe from a pharmacy because it's cheaper and more convenient than seeing a doctor, sure. But if you're not comfortable seeing a doctor... you should probably be seeing a doctor.

From the article:

"But the new websites and apps could reach many more women. They require no legislative approval since clinicians still write the prescriptions. The ventures must follow telemedicine regulations, which vary by state, and can only prescribe in states where their clinicians are licensed."

They are technically seeing a doctor (via telemedicine), but aren't comfortable to do so in person. This enables them to 'see a doctor' from the privacy and (psychological) comfort of their own room, which is presumably more private than them having to travel to their doctor's office and interact with them in person.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#15

Post by maxerickson »

ars wrote: post #11

"With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue." But check the actual source and: "Among women who had unintended births in the United States in 1998–2002, about 40% were using contraception" So that's very misleading reporting. Note that they tracked women for 4 years - track someone for their entire life and the numbers who had at least on…

From the third paragraph of the abstract:

Results—About 37% of births in the United States were unintended at the time of conception.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#16

Post by ars »

maxerickson wrote: post #15
ars wrote: post #11

"With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue." But check the actual source and: "Among women who had unintended births in the United States in 1998–2002, about 40% were using contraception" So that's very misleading reporting. Note that they tracked women for 4 years - track someone for their entire life and the numbers who had at least on…

From the third paragraph of the abstract: Results—About 37% of births in the United States were unintended at the time of conception.

Did you even read what I wrote? They were not [all] unintended as a result of lack of birth control.

Giving everyone access to birth control will NOT stop unintended births. It's not able to do that.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#17

Post by maxerickson »

ars wrote: post #16
maxerickson wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the third paragraph of the abstract: Results—About 37% of births in the United States were unintended at the time of conception.

Did you even read what I wrote? They were not [all] unintended as a result of lack of birth control. Giving everyone access to birth control will NOT stop unintended births. It's not able to do that.

Sure I read what you wrote. The line you quoted With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue. isn't claiming birth control is 100% effective, it's saying that there are a lot of people that might benefit from access.

I posted what I posted because I didn't think it was particularly misleading for the article to state a fact that was important enough to the report to appear in the abstract. Your language But check the actual source also sort of implies that the article had misstated the fact. But it did not.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#18

Post by tcj_phx »

Asparagirl wrote: post #12
guard-of-terra wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hundreds of millions also take those without negative side-effects.

Yes, but hundreds of millions of women also bounce around between different types of hormonal birth control (variations in pill type versus Depo shots versus NuvaRing versus Mirena versus the patch, etc.) because they have miserable experiences with physical and/or emotional side effects. I know this is anecdata, but I know two different young healthy women who suffered strokes or Deep Vein Thrombosis before the age…

> I know this is anecdata, but I know two different young healthy women who suffered strokes or Deep Vein Thrombosis before the age of thirty because of Yaz. (Both fully recovered, thank God, but will never be able to take hormonal pills again for life.)

The cause/effect relationship between elevated estrogen levels and clotting disorders is well understood by physiologists. All the old high-estrogen contraceptive pills have been pulled, because the data shows that they were not safe.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#19

Post by ars »

maxerickson wrote: post #17
ars wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you even read what I wrote? They were not [all] unintended as a result of lack of birth control. Giving everyone access to birth control will NOT stop unintended births. It's not able to do that.

Sure I read what you wrote. The line you quoted With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue. isn't claiming birth control is 100% effective, it's saying that there are a lot of people that might benefit from access. I posted what I posted because I didn't think it was particularly misleading for the article to state a fact that was importa…

> it's saying that there are a lot of people that might benefit from access.

Not as many as you would think. The number of people who: 1. want birth control, 2. are unable to get it, 3. had an child as a result, 4. and would have preferred not to, is a much smaller number than the article makes it out to be.

I find that misleading. I don't know why you don't.

These apps are about saving time for people, they will do nothing at all to the national birth rate.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#20

Post by rayiner »

eli wrote: post #4
cperciva wrote: post #3

she used the app Nurx for birth control because she felt uncomfortable visiting a doctor Frankly, this terrifies me. Getting medication which is generally accepted to be mostly safe from a pharmacy because it's cheaper and more convenient than seeing a doctor, sure. But if you're not comfortable seeing a doctor... you should probably be seeing a doctor.

Agreed, though I was under the impression that the reasons birth control still requires a prescription is not entirely based in science.

Birth control pills double the risk of ischemic stroke,[1] and the risk factors are dependent on individual medical factors. Copper IUDs, which avoid some of the symptoms some women experience with hormonal birth control, can increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy when women get pregnant while using it.[2]

One can weigh the cost/benefit of making contraceptives more easily available versus the increased safety of medical supervision, but it's not like the prescription requirement is plucked from thin air.

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118178.

[2] http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/paragard/basics/r....

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