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No controversy: 5 fantastic arguments for better birth control access
UPDATE: President Biden has opened the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for 2022. You can now enroll in one of these plans until January 15, 2022, at healthcare.gov . Some states have their own open enrollment periods and websites for signing up. Check to see if your state does . […]
The power of free birth control
UPDATE: President Biden has opened the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for 2022. You can now enroll in one of these plans until January 15, 2022, at healthcare.gov . Some states have their own open enrollment periods and websites for signing up. Check to see if your state does . […]
What’s in a birth control label?
Any prescription birth control method you buy in the United States comes with a square of delicately thin paper, folded until it won’t fold any more, covered in teeny-tiny print. It’s called a “package insert” or a “label”—and it may be telling you lies. First, some history… It wasn’t so long ago that there was […]
Starting the pill: How about now?
Sometimes old ideas die hard. One good example is the old idea that you have to start taking the pill on a Sunday, or start it five days after your period begins. Research has shown that this is just plain wrong. Out with the old… In the old days, health care providers often advised women […]
Good call, ladies! IUD use is up in the U.S.
When a lot of people start doing something new—say, using an IUD for birth control instead of the pill —it takes a few years for researchers to catch up with them. That’s why we’re just hearing now , thanks to the latest analysis of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) , that way more […]
Birth control and heart attacks and strokes—oh my!
“Nothing in life is risk free, and that includes birth control.” Margaret Polaneczky, MD, comes to this simple, spot-on conclusion in her post about a new study on hormonal birth control and women’s risk of heart attack or stroke. The good news? The risks with even the riskiest of types of birth control are still […]
Gold-standard birth control: The IUD and the implant
In terms of effectiveness, not all birth control methods are created equal. And if there was any doubt as to which methods stand out in that arena, an article by the folks behind the Contraceptive CHOICE Project (just published in the New England Journal of Medicine ) should put it to rest. The Contraceptive CHOICE […]
Ovarian cysts: No biggie, but birth control can help
Patients almost always have the same look on their face when we talk about ovarian cysts. It’s that look of, “OMG, I have a ticking time-bomb in my pelvis!” I worry that they imagine a giant green blob growing larger and larger inside them, like a Chia pet , that might one day suddenly explode. […]
Getting pregnant: Yes you can!
As a doctor, one of the things that most surprises me is the number of women who don’t use birth control because they think they can’t get pregnant. Risk can be tricky to understand and we all want to believe that things like car wrecks and debilitating diseases never happen to us or to the […]
Birth control spotlight: The implant
Even if you’re squeamish, you can handle learning a little bit more about the implant. It’s a super-effective method. It’s an ultra-tiny rod that gets inserted under the skin of your upper arm. It’s smaller than a match and practically invisible once you get it (so nobody ever needs to know you have it). And […]
