How do you know this app is reputable and deliverers real medicine? I wish the author had mentioned this. It's not an issue when the app is provided by your health insurance company. But if it's not how do you know?
Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
61–70 of 100 posts
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The amount of hoops you have to jump through to get birth control is ridiculous." What country is this? In Aus, this is a medical/GP issue and birth control pharmaceuticals are available at the chemist via a script.
Planned Parenthood is often used by women who are not regularly visiting a GP.
thanks Zak, that must be difficult.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The amount of hoops you have to jump through to get birth control is ridiculous." What country is this? In Aus, this is a medical/GP issue and birth control pharmaceuticals are available at the chemist via a script.
In USA, many people do not have access to a GP.
"In USA, many people do not have access to a GP."
This is such an culturally alien experience. Thanks for reminding me healthcare is unevenly distributed.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#64There 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…
That site also attributes obesity to "the contamination of the food supply with biodiesel" so... it seems more than a bit suspect.
Extraordinary claims, extraordinary proof, and all that.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Birth control, unlike marijuana, has no recreational use.
As an engineer, I would argue that birth control's primary use is recreational.
I have had friends on "birth control" for acne, polycystic ovarian syndrome, migraines, endometriosis and a host of other non-child related issues.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people have had bad experiences with doctors, and in particular sometimes bad experiences around discussing sex and sexuality with doctors. Teenage girls trying to get birth control are told they are irresponsible or are sluts; parents get involved and send mixed messages regarding relationships with health care providers; and docs can cause a lot of trouble when they're not well-educated about things like e…
These, by the way, are the experiences that make it difficult for men to have any empathy (even if they're open to it) with the actual experience of dealing with sexual health for women.
I figured I'd share it here because I don't think most men have any idea what many of those visits involve. They are not so fun to talk about.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
In USA, many people do not have access to a GP.
"In USA, many people do not have access to a GP." This is such an culturally alien experience. Thanks for reminding me healthcare is unevenly distributed.
Even if you have a GP, it's smart to take someone along as an advocate to help you make more informed decisions.
For example, if you think you have skin cancer and go to a dermatologist in the USA, there's a good chance the receptionist will tell you their patient list is closed and you should call back in 6 months. By then you will have died twice over from a melanoma, so it's helpful to have a second person insist on staying and forcing an appointment.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
What she wants to do is her business. If she wants to use an app or a voodoo magician for health I frankly think it is no body's business to tell her otherwise. Even third world countries have birth control off the shelf.
That's the strict Libertarian view, yes. The consensus among medical ethicists, however, is that medical professionals have a duty to avoid allowing patients to come to harm, and that this duty takes priority even over the patient's wishes; wanting to cut your arm off may be your own business, but you won't find a surgeon offering to sell you tools for that purpose.
This attitude is incredibly patronizing and "harm" is very subjective.
I feel like having a child is 100x more harmful to me than never having one, but urologists in the US almost unanimously disagree and refuse to perform vasectomies on the childless.
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#69How do you know this app is reputable and deliverers real medicine? I wish the author had mentioned this. It's not an issue when the app is provided by your health insurance company. But if it's not how do you know?
The app doesn't deliver medicine. Regular pharmacies do. The app just makes it quicker, easier, and more private to get the prescription in the first place.
From the article:
"...a doctor reviews a woman’s medical information and sends a pill prescription to a local pharmacy.
"'I thought it was just a setup to get money,' [a user] said. But after she answered the health questions one evening, 'a doctor actually contacted me after office hours,' and the next morning, she picked up three months’ worth of pills."
Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar
#70This is really good news for women (and men in long term relationships with women). The amount of hoops you have to jump through to get birth control is ridiculous. Have you ever been in a planned parenthood? It's basically the DMV (with an equal level of cleanliness). Women have to make at least yearly visits to this place to get absurd and intrusive medical evaluations just to get the pill. Birth control should be…
> get absurd and intrusive medical evaluations just to get the pill. ? An annual gyno exam is a general best practice, whether birth control is involved or not.
That does not seem to be an evidence-based recommendation. Pap smears are recommended every 3-5 years, pelvic exams are not recommended by the American College of Physicians for healthy asymptomatic adult women, HPV test is recommended every five years in adult healthy women. Pap smears and pelvic exams more frequently than every five years are associated with a high false positive and false negative rate, incidental findings that lead to additional testing or treatment but turn out to be benign, discomfort, and higher cost.
Overscreening is a real problem, and since HN has a lot of male readers I'll do a public service announcement (PSA, get it?!!) that prostate cancer overscreening doesn't lead to a mortality benefit on a population level (if you look at all-cause mortality) and leads to interventions that leave a lot of men incontinent and unable to enjoy their previous sex life [1]. If you have any symptoms, definitely go to the doctor -- screening in men with symptoms saves lives. Prostate cancer can be a killer. But just screening all healthy people of a certain age for breast, prostate, and cervical cancer every year actually leads to poorer health outcomes because we don't yet understand when to treat cancer aggressively and when to just ignore it.
[1] http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1216568 Per 1000 men, screening all every 1-4 years for 10 years and then following through their treatment saves about 1 guy from dying, kills about 1 guy and puts 2 in the hospital from complications of biopsy and treatment, gives 3 heart attacks, and leaves 35 with bladder or sexual dysfunction problems.