Thank you both for the additional info on medical choices for families. I appreciate all the positive points about PP but I just wish they or some other agency could do the rest of it, without offering abortions. I do apologize for veering toward that issue since I know it’s not the point of the thread.
Just a curiosity question. I live in a city with no PP clinic but it looks like they’re building one. Well for the past month or so, my family and I have noticed a lone protester in front of the construction site. She’s there nearly every day and holds a sign that says “Millions die because Planned Parenthood Lies.” I did some searching but can’t find anything about this. I’m assuming it’s because of the abortions but are you familiar with this protest ‘slogan’? We’re just all dying with curiosity but she looks waaay too crazy to walk up to and ask.
Can you put to rest the talking point that “Planned Parenthood is in the abortion business for the money”? I was once told by a date (last date for us) that PP charges a thousand dollars for an abortion and makes a huge profit on them, so they have a vested interest in pushing them. I don’t believe a word of it, but what’s the whole straight dope on price, etc?
PS, when I was cleaning houses for a living, on my own, no insurance, PP was my primary and only provider for several years, even gave me a script for antibiotics for some bad acne 'cause I asked. My NP was also a midwife and she was amazingly gentle and kind. (Ypsi, MI PP office.)
I had a bad experience with planned parenthood. I can’t take the pill because it makes my migraines worse, and I’m allergic to both spermicide and latex. So I’m down to non-spermicide polyurethane condoms. (I am also very careful about my partners). I had one slip off on the worst possible day of my cycle. I went to PP for the morning after pill. They said that because I’d never been there before, I needed a full exam, tests & pap smear (Even though I had just had a visit at my regular gyno). I sit in the waiting room 2+hours past the time of my appointment, go through the whole exam. . . and then they tell me they don’t want to give me the EC. Because of the migraines. I get very upset and demand to know how it would be better, hormonally, for me to be pregnant and get an abortion. After much doctor discussion outside the exam room, they agree to give it to me. Along with a lecture about how inadequate my birth control was.*
They cost ended up being over $200, which was an unbelievable amount of money to me at the time. Shortly thereafter, I get a note in the mail telling me my pap was abnormal and to come back. I panicked, told my mother, and got taken to my regular gyno. He told me that doing a pap right after unprotected sex will usually come back abnormal because of semen on the cervix, and they should have known that-- so, a waste of money and worry.
I think PP provides a valuable service, and I am glad they were there. However, I ended up paying money I couldn’t afford for tests I didn’t need that weren’t directly applicable to the prescription I needed (as evidenced by the fact that none of the results were back before they gave me the EC). Everything I said about my sexual history (of which there was very little and none unsafe) or previous STD tests was ignored, and I was required to be tested for a whole host of things that I knew I didn’t have from previous partners, and it was too soon to show up w/ the current one (literally less than 12 hours from our first encounter)
I am very pro-choice, and I hate tell people this story because I don’t want to feed the pro-lifers any ammo about the only decent place to get birth control and abortions in many parts of the country, but. . . damn. They made me feel like a liar, an idiot, and a cheap whore. I wouldn’t have gone back if they’d sent me a letter saying my pap showed signs of cancer.
(This was in New Jersey, and a decade ago. I like to think they were an exception rather than the rule-- and from stories there that seem to be the case.)
*As I said at the time, and say to anyone. . . If you’ve got any non-hormonal, non-latex, non-spermicide options a doctor is will to give to a woman who’s never been pregnant (I’d love an IUD, but they say no). . . I am ALL ears. It would make my year.
I thought you could walk into a clinic and buy Plan B from them? I meant to go to the one near me in Maryland before I moved here and get a couple of doses just in case but forgot to.
I also never paid more than $80 for a full exam, and they let me waive the STD tests since I knew I truly wasn’t at risk. Your experience sounds like an outlier, all right, but I’m glad everything turned out all right for you.
$200???
That’s what I thought-- I’d just call and come get them. Nope. I got charged for a the pills, a full exam, pap, a pregnancy test, and tests for what seemed like every STD on the planet(even Syphilis). This despite me telling them that until the night before, I hadn’t had sexual contact of any kind in over a year and was clean on my last full work up a few months before. Doctor told me I couldn’t have the EC w/out all the tests. (They also sent me home with-- and charged me for-- two packs of birth control pills that I could not use.)
They may have done a sliding scale thing and made some judgement based on the expensive clothes/shoes/bag/jewlery I was wearing. My family was well-to-do, I personally was just broke w/out getting money from my mom.
I’m SO sorry about your experience. Nothing about your story rings true for the services provided at my clinic, ten years later and likely in a different state. Now, EC is available OTC or free if you qualify for state-funded services and is pretty much handed out like candy to anyone who asks for it. Because it’s non-estrogenic, it should have no effect whatsoever on migraines or any migraine-related health issue. Women who suffer from certain types of migraines should not use estrogen due to a greatly increased risk of what we euphemistically call “adverse cardiovascular events” such as strokes and heart attacks… but again Plan B, containing only progesterone should not interfere, and I have no idea why you should have been denied for that reason. I really don’t. The only thing I can imagine is that it was some other type of EC with which I am unfamiliar… but even so, ten years ago, they should have been able to give you a pack of protestin-only birth control pills and instructions on how to use them as emergency contraceptives, which again would have had no effect on your migraines.
Also, there’s no need, medically speaking, for an exam prior to the dispense of EC pills. At my clinic, if you wish to receive state-funded services, you do have to have a “medical visit” which can either be an annual exam or a consultation-type visit–but again this is a state requirement which has nothing to with the medical necessity of the exam, but only hoops the state makes you jump through to be able to access no-cost health care. There was a period of time in which we were required to make you sit through some kind of visit in order to be able to dispense something that had no relation whatsoever to the visit itself–literally for no reason whatsoever other than because the state required us to have the paperwork filled out in order to dispense anything to you, even condoms.
As far as all the testing goes, I can’t explain that at all. We’d never test you for anything you didn’t want or need and certainly none of that has anything to do with an EC prescription.
If it’s any consolation now, you should be able to pick up a couple packs of EC at any pharmacy to have stashed in your medicine cabinet for future emergencies.
As far as your BC requirements, I’d start calling around and get second, third, fourth, and fifth opinions on that IUD. Many providers shy away from inserting IUDs in nulliparas (women who haven’t given birth), but find someone with a lot of experience and tell them your story and you’ll have an IUD in 4-6 weeks. If you’re in the PNW send me a note and I’ll direct you to an NP with 40+ years of IUD experience who will happily set you up, assuming you fit the other requirements. Mainly the thing with nulliparas is that the insertion is more difficult, due to the cervical os being small and tight. After giving birth, the os is much wider and easier to pass the insertion device through. There’s some feeling amongst providers that nulliparas tend to have more problems with them, wish to have them removed more frequently, and have a higher risk of rejection… however, my clinic tracked all inserts and removals for a ten year period and didn’t see any difference at all in the rates of any of those things between women who have given birth and women who hadn’t.
Good luck, and do keep looking for a provider!
I’ve never been pregnant, and I’ve had an IUD since 2003, when I was barely 25.
I love it. You just have to find a doctor who understands that the risks are still relatively minimal. There’s a lot of stigma out there from the old IUDs–I’ve found that younger doctors are more open to the idea of giving one to a woman who has never been pregnant.
No clue. WAG off the top of my head, she’s talking about the new facility in Aurora. My boss just came back from a tour, and said it’s beautiful. 22,000 sq. ft., full services clinic, state of the art everything.
I would love to put it to rest, but I’m afraid no matter what I say, it’s going to be translated into “killing babies for cash.” We do perform abortions, yes. As I hope this thread has shown, we do quite a bit more. However, we’re a non profit organization. The money we take in goes back into the clinics, into education, into salaries (we’re not completely run by volunteers; nobody works for free, I’m certainly no exception), medications, equipment and so on. We do not draw a profit. Some people confuse non-profit with “we don’t charge for our services.” The two are not the same.
We have several programs for patients with no insurance. It’s a sliding scale based on income. If the patient is truly unable to pay for our services, we have grants and assistance programs they can apply for.
Obsidian, I’d echo NajaNivea’s post and reiterate that you should have been better listened to. I’m sorry you weren’t.
Thanks for the advice! I haven’t asked about it in a couple years after being constantly told “no”. I’ve been told it’s “impossible to put in” as a reason, and also that it can cause infertility so they want you to have had a child first. I will ask my regular gyno, and then I may shoot you a message. I am in CA and would totally fly to some location in the PNW to get one put in.
I didn’t have any worse migraines from the EC. I did try progesterone only birth control pills, but they made me sick. I would love an IUD.
Be sure you get the no-hormones one - there’s one version with some hormones as well.
My friend definitely wants to have children but hasn’t yet, and she was given an IUD. Sorry I don’t know what kind, but she was ~27 and decided this was her best option. I think she would have gone to PP for it since she is low-income and gets other treatment there.
Obsidian- both progesterone only hormonal contraceptives and IUDs should be safe for you. Not all hormonal contraception is out of the question.
Cerazette is a good Progesterone Only Pill, if it doesn’t work out or makes your migraines worse you don’t have to wait for it to wear off like you would for Depo.
Mirena is a miraculous creation. I’ve got one, I’m 25, 24 when it was put in ,and nulliparous, but I was under GA and it was done in a hospital.
The isue with IUDs and nulliparous women is that there is a risk of damage to the cervix (which is tighter), there is a higher incidence of uterine perforation and cervical dilation may be “uncomfortable” for parous women but can be “excruciating” for nullips. There is also possibility of ascending infection which could compromise future fertility by damaging the womb or fallopian tubes. The risks of ascending infection exist for all women, but in theory, you’ll be more upset about it if you don’t have any kids.
So…
- Get tested and treated for STDs prior to IUD insertion
- Get your IUD inserted by someone who knows what they are doing and has done a lot of them
- Investigate the possibility of getting it inserted under sedation or GA because it may well hurt like a motherfucker.
If something goes wrong with insertion it would be nice if the person inserting the IUD was also in a location and position to fix it there and then i.e. a doctor, in a hospital, with an operating theatre close at hand.
IUDs are not technically difficult to insert or remove…I know, I’ve done both at work, many times.
The worst case of ignorance I’ve ever heard of was the young, religious married couple who were seen by one of my colleagues for infertility. It turns out that what they thought you did to make a baby isn’t actually what you do to make a baby. Yup, married for 2 years and still virgins.
All I can say is that PP sounds like a good thing and that anyone working there is making the world better in a small but vital way.
I’d be happy to do whatever I can!
I’m sure this kind of thing happens a fair bit- a woman is at PP getting her exam for renewing her birth control prescription, and mentions some other annoying-but-not-bad-enough-to-go-to-an-urgent-care-clinic problem she’s having, and the PP doctor does something for that problem while she’s there. Or the PP doctor might find some non-reproductive-related condition, as happened to Aangelica.
To get that, some pro-life people who don’t have a problem with contraception are going to have to get together and be willing to deal with the furor from the pro-life people who are anti-contraception. To do that, they’re going to have to go against the Catholic Church and the Christian Right. That wouldn’t be trivial.
They also couldn’t offer any contraception that might prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg; i.e. IUDs and some birth control pills.
Not all PPs do offer abortion. I believe they will all offer abortion referral services. I was a little surprised by Mr. Moto saying that Minnesota PP had been found in violation of the parental consent act (or whatever its called here), when I was a PP client, PP clinics in Minnesota didn’t do abortions , only referrals - or at least the one I went to (thinking about it now, I think the Highland Park location did abortions - the Minneapolis location referred you to a non-profit women’s clinic - that wasn’t the PP in St. Paul). But that was long ago. It was always funny to run the Minneapolis picket line - since the people picking were obviously clueless as to what happened in the building (mostly handing out BC scripts).
My local PP is like this. They don’t perform abortions themselves, but they will refer patients to another local women’s health center. I’ve never seen any protestors at our PP clinic, but that probably has more to do with the fact that they’re located on a very busy street with no sidewalk than the fact that they don’t perform abortions.
I’d like to join the “thanks” chorus. PP gets a donation from me every month. It’s important for me to give back to an organization that was there for me years ago. I haven’t gone there for years since I’m lucky to have great health care benefits now, but I think the service is invaluable for those who don’t. No, I’ve never had an abortion. Probably because of PP, I haven’t needed one.
I remember being a terrified teenager with no money but a million questions I didn’t dare ask my family GP. My fist pelvic exam was at PP. I got affordable birth control from them for years along with accurate, unbiased information. I went there for my first AIDS test. Every time, they patiently answered my questions and never judged me.
Question: what do you think is the biggest misconception your patients have about reproductive issues?
Here in Minnesota, they did try to bomb a PP Clinic a few years ago.
Except the people who did it were so dumb they got the address number wrong, and set off their bomb in the back of the public library building across the street.
To my mind, that pretty much shows the quality of the people involved.