Birth control can’t be OTC
Let’s talk about birth control. Since the whole Hobby Lobby SCOTUS decision, there’s been talk of simply making birth control pills available without a prescription. Sounds like a good idea, right? Make these pills easily available to all women and eliminate the question of whether or not religiously-inclined employers need to “pay” for them.
Well… no. Birth control pills are drug with serious potential side effectsand contraindications that need to be monitored by a physician. That’s like saying that we should make people regulate their own heart meds or anti-anxiety pills. What could possibly go wrong?
A fatal stroke, for one. A few years back, I went in to my gynecologist about some oddities and was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Not a big deal – it’s common enough and fairly easy to treat. My doctor prescribed exercise and birth control pills. Not for contraception – Aron had a vasectomy years ago – but to regulate my hormones.
Sure, I said with a shrug. I didn’t like the pill, but I’d take them during high school and survived the experience. The doctor told me that the name she wrote on the prescription pad was for a pure estrogen pill, an older variety that was great for treating PCOS. So I took the prescription and headed off to get it filled.
No sooner had I stepped out the door and gone to my car did my cell phone ring. It was my gynecologist telling me not come right back and get a new prescription. Just as a matter of routine caution, she reviewed pulled up my medical records from my GP and reviewed them before going on to her next patient that day. She noted there that I suffered from ocular migraines and had been to the hospital several times for them.
As it turns out, estrogen pills and ocular migraines don’t mix.Chances are low, but they can result in potentially fatal strokes. Without my gynecologist doing her due diligence, I never would have known. It never would have even occurred to me that hormones and headaches might be the closely related. It’s a damned good thing she was watching out for me. If I had just been able to walk into Walgreens and purchase the pills, I might be fine.
But I might not have been.
