241–250 of 395 posts
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> but there may be risks, especially if folks don't take the medicine correctly. This describes every over-the-counter drug that has ever been sold. Keeping contraception prescription-only has always been about politics.
How do you think the two are equivalent? Hormone medications can have a profound impact on a person across the spectrum from mental to physical health. Secondly, taking BC wrong may lead to a false sense of security and subsequent unwanted pregnancies. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a, smallish, correlated increase in STDs, as well. Neither of those are a thing someone buying tylenol has to worry about. Disinge…
These medications are safe for everyone. There is noting a doctor does to evaluate whether you're healthy enough to take them. They literally just write the script and explain how to take it. Medications where the doctor visit is a formality should just be OTC with maybe an informed consent paper given to you by the pharmacist.
The opposition is just politically-religiously motivated concern trolling.
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Maybe it's time for the FDA to just do quality checks but otherwise screw off. I'm tired of having to order 100% safe drugs from Indian pharmacies. No question they are colluding with Big Pharma. Is there any reason the "Farmacia" model of Latin American countries, where you go in and pay per-pill for whatever you want wouldn't work here?
I dont know what "Famarcia" model you refer to, but in Argentina isn't like that, but the contrary. You need a prescription from your doctor to buy most of the meds. Last time I was in NYC, I was surprised by the meds section, a lot of choices without prescription. I wish we had something like that in here, the only thing that doesn't need a prescription is ibuprofen* [* I am exagerating but you get the point...]
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Couldn't be that doctors wanted all those easy well visits writing scripts for birth control and the recent supreme court ruling encouraged the FDA to finally be reasonable? It's that this exact moment is the first time in human history that women are capable of understanding "once daily".
> It's that this exact moment is the first time in human history that women are capable of understanding "once daily". Contraceptives have a long-standing problem of people being unable or unwilling to follow the instructions, or not catching little nuances like "this pill lasts for 22 hours, so you really need to take it every day at the same time ". For a decent-looking summary, see ex. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov…
Hilariously, almost all of the "failure rate" of vasectomies is due to people who don't follow the doctor's instructions for how to handle the first few weeks after (you've still got some live swimmers with access to the outside, for a while). Other reasons for failure are so vanishingly rare they're hardly worth mentioning.
So you're thinking about getting the surgery, see the failure rate and are like, "damn, that's low but still a lot higher than I'd expect, given I'm committing to nut surgery"—but no, as long as you don't do the single thing you're not supposed to for the first few weeks, it's basically 100% effective.
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This is the biggest red herring. Global population is at an all time high. We could lose 2 billion and be totally fine.
I am under 30. At current trajectory, my government (USA) will be unable to fund social security, medicaid, and medicare to care for me in my old age due to worsening working-youth:retired-elderly population ratio. I am concerned about unsustainable tax burden on the next generation youth. This problem will be worse in countries which don't attract immigrants.
If people take contraceptives, it's because they don't want to have kids at that moment. Forcing these people to have kids will create broken parents and broken kids, who go on to become broken parents themselves and perpetuate the cycle. Most of modern society's problems can be traced to parents who should not have been parents in the first place. We don't need more of that.
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Even OTC amphetamines have purchased limits, some imposed by law depending on the state.
I guess you're suggesting that they rejected my prescription because of supply issues, they openly said it was because it was suspicious (3-mo in cash), and also Vyvanse hasn't had shortages like generic amphetamine in 2022-2023. Also, I think you mean OTC amphetamine alternatives since amphetamine is sched I.
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Women can wear condoms and/or get Tubal ligation. And yet Men have 100% liability the moment it leaves our body, potentially including in cases of paternity fraud.
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I can walk into a drug store and choose from aisle after aisle of prescription-free drugs, so I think we have already done that.
This is false equivancy. We would need to view that on an individual basis. Just because we have done it for one type of drug, doesn't mean the concerns are the same for another type. This is especially true when considering alternatives during evaluation.
The pill can have pretty severe mental health impacts on women. I think as long as these are clearly signposted so that women know what they might be getting themselves into, then fair enough. Also tons of other side effects, some of which are pretty severe if taken in combination with the correct (eg most unlucky) underlying health issues.
I was on birth control for 5 years and had some friends on it too. My very anecdotal data is that: while none of us faced any mental health changes, there were some physiological changes that I did not like. You're right that there are women who maybe severely impacted mental-health wise. But I think the benefits outweigh this as the lack of ability to control one's reproductive life can also be debilitating, mentall…
From my reading of this comment thread in general the issue really seems to be that you can’t see a doctor for free (at the point of use) in the US. Anecdotally I know a few people who have had difficult side effects on the pill, or medical issues which preclude them from using specific types. Speaking to a doctor once to get put on the best one for you, and then picking them up from the pharmacy monthly seems to work well and doesn’t seem like the “gatekeeping” people are ranting about in this thread. The idea that your pharmacist or doctor would have political or moral views on contraception that impacts their ability to do their job is crazy (to me). If that’s the case the entire system needs reviewed as opposed to making drugs available OTC.
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A lot of that ends up being bureaucratic wastes of time though. My partner was on birth control for years and had to jump through so many hoops - Had to go to yearly appointments to continue receiving it - Could not pick up more than a month at a time, which created logistical issues since they HAD to take it daily - Had to get the prescription renewed every three months or so, which often led to delays filling it It…
You can add to that list - Have to get pap smears before being granted a prescription Doctors will withhold birth control to coerce women to get regular pap smears, just because it's a lever they have available, not because it's related to the prescription. I have to take both ADHD meds and birth control, and while it is much easier to get prescribed birth control, it's a similar level of stress of making sure my med…