We were talking about Islam overall. Nice strawman, though. Get back to me when you’re allowed to have 4 husbands as slaves that you can trade and barter, in addition to your children. If you think the philosophy of Islam is restricted to the 2 pathetic examples you gave, then you need to go do some more research,…

What I love is how quiet the Islam-defenders are on articles like this. It’s almost like their heads are busy up their asses or something.

Was there anything in your health history that a doctor would have discovered which would have led him/her to refuse to prescribe OBC (I suspect not, since you were prescribed the pill BY an MD)?

It’s quite possible things have changed in 20 years.

Tylenol is actually a fairly high-risk drug with a slim margin between accepted dose and toxic dose: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/201…

I really don’t want to have to rely on the benevolence of a large chain or manufacturer to mitigate birth control costs. Birth control is absolutely one of those things that should just be covered for all women, full stop. Write it into law. It is in the best interests of society for women to be able to control their…

The estrogen amounts in HBC are significantly lower than they were 10-20 years ago, so blood clots and stroke risk is significantly reduced. There have been a number of peer reviewed articles on this - here’s a summary of one: http://www.m.webmd.com/women/news/201…

Some women will have a bad experience with hormonal birth control. However, statistically, far fewer women will be harmed by it that will be harmed by unplanned pregnancies. Health policy should always be skewed towards what gives the greatest benefits to the greatest numbers.

Your point would be better made by something other than Tylenol, which can cause liver failure and death in dosages not much higher than the recommended dosage.

Where I’m from, birth control pills are OTC. We’re fine. I’m in Europe, btw, where, as pointed out in the article, unplanned pregnancies are fewer. Those two facts may or may not be related. Requiring a prescription for birth control would deter A LOT of teenage girls and even a lot of grown women from acquiring it…

You’re like those women who have children and then think they know absolutely everything about child development, by virtue of having pushed one through their vaginas. But, you know, they have “opinions”.

Each ob/gyn I visited had their preference of birth control pills that they would prescribe first, before moving on to other variants if patients mentioned difficulties with a particular drug. Prescribing a favorite out of habit isn’t exactly the definition of best care.

Your really bad experience with hormonal birth control happened after it was prescribed by a doctor though... Was there any way that doctor could have known beforehand what your reaction to it would be?

“I read these stories on your blog almost every day, and I have to say that the way healthcare is handled in the US frightens the life out of me.”

That’s one of the things that I really loved about the UK. They actually allow pharmacists to do a lot of things—from administering STD tests to diagnosing ear infections—which made getting small problems taken care of so much easier and lessened the burden on doctor’s offices.

While I see your concern regarding issue #2... I can prescribe OTC medications to patients readily (Tylenol, Aspirin, etc) and it’s covered by insurance and in most cases ends up being free for the patient through insurance. This technically doesn’t make it “over the counter” as its prescribed by a pharmacist who…

I read these stories on your blog almost every day, and I have to say that the way healthcare is handled in the US frightens the life out of me.

1 - I would suspect that there are a large amount of women who have been on BC for years that does work for them who would prefer to not be forced to schedule a doctor’s appointment to re-up on their prescription every time it runs out. This will be great for them. People who are new to BC should see a doctor - or if…

I’ve never been on HBC so I really can’t speak to that but the 2nd issue seems easy enough to address from a legislative process just as they've done in these two states.

For what it’s worth, I’ve found that many pharmacists are more up to speed on drug interactions, new medicines, and -don’t tell doctors this- are pretty decent primary care professionals. I live in an area that has a shortage of doctors, and people use the local pharmacist as much as their GPs.