Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 100 posts

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#81

Post by obmelvin »

tcj_phx wrote: post #80
JoBrad wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects Any source on this? My wife took birth control because of ovarian cysts. She had issues with the first few types, but we eventually found one that has worked for nearly a decade, with no issues. I know of several other women with this same experience. Reddit (or any other forum used for complaints) is hardly a good example to support this.

> but we eventually found one that has worked for nearly a decade, with no issues. Surely you'd agree that fixing the cause of ovarian cysts would be better than putting women on maintenance medication? > Reddit (or any other forum used for complaints) is hardly a good example to support this. Women who share their negative experiences are the Canaries in Medicine's coal mine. The few who are overtly harmed should wa…

I don't think he/she is discounting the warnings, but simply that Reddit cannot be used to support the 'Almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects' arguement and he/she is wondering if there is any data on that.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#82

Post by moultano »

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.

I've never met a women who didn't have any side effects from birth control. They just lived with them because it was better than the alternative.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#83

Post by ubernostrum »

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.

Data point: I know several women who don't have issues with seeing a doctor in general, but do have strong issues with the particular type of doctor visit that's historically been required to get a prescription for birth control. Those visits can be unpleasantly invasive both physically and emotionally, when there's absolutely no medical reason for them to be that way. So being able to skip that uncomfortable visit is a big deal. The first time I heard a story of "so, yeah, I basically have to let this dude stick his hand up me once a year in order to keep my prescription", I was horrified.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#84

Post by mamon »

On one level you are right: this will probably lead to some people harming themselves with medication obtained without proper medical advice.

On another level: we should not protect people from themselves. If someone is stupid enough to do something harmfull to him/herself we should let them. Natural selection will do the rest.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#85

Post by emp_zealoth »

ubernostrum wrote: post #83
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.

Data point: I know several women who don't have issues with seeing a doctor in general, but do have strong issues with the particular type of doctor visit that's historically been required to get a prescription for birth control. Those visits can be unpleasantly invasive both physically and emotionally, when there's absolutely no medical reason for them to be that way. So being able to skip that uncomfortable visit i…

Women should go to a doctor around once a year anyway just to check if everything is allright. Depending on a type of birth control those visits are even more important. There are reasons for them...

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#86

Post by brusch64 »

kaitai wrote: post #32
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.

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…

>Teenage girls trying to get birth control are told they are irresponsible or are sluts

I'm not from the US nor am I a woman.. but if this happens you should really change your doctor. I don't think that this would be legal / acceptable anywhere in the world.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#87

Post by ubernostrum »

emp_zealoth wrote: post #85
ubernostrum wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data point: I know several women who don't have issues with seeing a doctor in general, but do have strong issues with the particular type of doctor visit that's historically been required to get a prescription for birth control. Those visits can be unpleasantly invasive both physically and emotionally, when there's absolutely no medical reason for them to be that way. So being able to skip that uncomfortable visit i…

Women should go to a doctor around once a year anyway just to check if everything is allright. Depending on a type of birth control those visits are even more important. There are reasons for them...

Rather than re-state it I'll just link you to this comment, which is spot-on accurate:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11935777

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#88

Post by noir_lord »

bpchaps wrote: post #38
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.

I have significant social anxiety and see a doctor about it. Yet, buying condoms is up there in the top ten most uncomfortable things I know of. Your thoughts on this are way, WAY too simplistic. It's incredibly aggravating to see you being upvoted for this nonsense. Maybe in a perfect world with perfect self-understanding, but that's not the world we live in.

I have a friend with social anxiety, I used to buy an extra box when I bought mine though now he gets them online so that's been useful for him, I've never cared, grew up with a single mum so if I went shopping I'd buy sanitary towels etc as part of the weekly shop.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#89

Post by 50CNT »

smt88 wrote: post #69
PretzelFisch wrote: post #61

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?

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 conta…

That's pretty similar to how I heard on-line viagra companies do it. Except shadier and without the apps.

Re: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

#90

Post by droidist2 »

moultano wrote: post #82
guard-of-terra wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've never met a women who didn't have any side effects from birth control. They just lived with them because it was better than the alternative.

The alternative being primarily unwanted pregnancy or menstrual symptoms? I ask because there's a lot of good ways to prevent pregnancy but not as much for the latter.
Post reply on HN