For what it’s worth, I had a condom break in college, and this was right after Plan B <or something like it; we called it “The day after pill”, so I assume it was similar; it was 20 years ago>…anyway, went to Planned Parenthood and they asked me some questions and declined to prescribe it for me. They were relying on the rhythm method, and concluded I was ‘safe’. They were right, but HOLY FUCKING COW it was a scary week until my period started. :eek:
Were I in a position to worry about it any longer, I would definitely be sure to have one around. Just in case.
P.S. for the lady who had a kid after a tubal: I will be sure to tell my mom about that. 4 kids, 4 birth controls…after the fourth one they offered her a tubal, and she said “Only if you completely cut and cauterize it; there is no way I’m risking it”.
Although while I was half-heartedly looking on google just to not speak too soon, I did find, much to my surprise, two small, preliminary studies which suggested that women correctly intuited the *gender *of their unborn baby 70% of the time…but only if they didn’t have a strong preference for which gender they had! One was run by Johns Hopkins and published in the journal Birth, to which I have no access, the other by a couple of doctors in Arizona. Weird.
I’m not buying it. Planned Parenthood just hands it out with my regular BC if I tell them I need it. I rarely do, but I like to get it occasionally–around once a year or so–so that I have it just in case something happens.
WhyNot, I keep a packet of Plan B around, because I sometimes forget a pill, and I don’t want the hassle of going to the all night pharmacy just because I screwed up the Friday pill. The directions on my pills say to take plan B if you forget a pill within the second week of active pills in a given cycle (and use condoms for a week).
I answered that it can’t be summed up for condoms and plan b… mainly since if I was in a drug store, I would probably be the pharmacist behind the counter that knows the mother in question. However, I would sell it, and I wouldn’t tell their mother about it, since it is more important that a child that age doesn’t get pregnant (or get someone pregnant), and ruin their life then it is that I get someone in trouble.
Besides, it would be against my oath as a pharmacist and hippa regulations to talk about what I sold someone.
I’m so out of the loop I didn’t even know you could get it without a prescription. It would be great to have around just in case.
Oh and I’d definitely buy them for the teens who asked. I was shy about buying or asking the doctor for birth control when I was a teen, and that shyness got me pregnant.
Out here Planned Parenthood charges a discount $35 (as opposed to at least $50 anywhere else) for Plan B which insurance won’t cover if you’re over 17.
I’d buy condoms for whoever. I wouldn’t buy Plan B for either because I don’t know enough about it to feel comfortable. Condoms are more passive, Plan B is a bit too active and invasive for me to just buy it while ignorant.
Personally, I probably wouldn’t buy plan B for a teenage kid I didn’t know- though I’d try and encourage them to find somewhere they feel comfortable getting it (offer a lift to local clinic etc if I had my car with me).
Partially because this is probably the first time they will have taken it, if they’re being that nervous, and think they should be getting it from the person with a clue, not me, and I sort of feel I’d be encouraging them to be careless… Not that I think you’re automatically careless for needing it, sometimes it happens, just especially as it’s a teenager, the odds of them being in a monogamous relationship is pretty low, if I could encourage them to go get a bit better advice than it sounds like they’re following.
I might give an exception if they say they have used it before, and they’ve just nervous about that pharmacist knowing their parent, and their parent’s overreaction, if I believe them.
No kid should have to be pregnant because they’re too scared to ask for help.
Incidently, one of my friends mentioned this exact thing (with two 15-year-old-boys) happened to her a few weeks back, the kid being too scared to go up and buy them. Which I found a bit funny, as my friend actually is a pharmacist, she just doesn’t look like it.
I think my policy of not letting myself get dragged into other peoples’ drama would be the over-riding factor here. I live in a big city, so it’s not like the kid couldn’t walk two blocks down and find another pharmacy, if that’s the issue. And if it were in a small town – well, grew up in one, know what those dramafests are like, and no thank you.
I think my involvement would be limited to saying: “If your parents are that scary, maybe you should think about talking to your school counselor about getting help. If they’re not scary, and you’re just too embarrassed to make responsible decisions, then you need to grow up before having sex.” Particularly for the drugs, since there are potential legal issues there (is there a lower age limit in my state/city? I have no idea, wouldn’t have a way to look it up on the spot, if so the kid could have a fake ID, do I really want to be legally liable for a total stranger? Hell, no).
I’ll suggest alternate resources, sure (aforementioned school counselor, Planned Parenthood, there’s a Walgreens down the street with a completely different pharmacist), but I’m not getting in the middle of some stranger’s family drama. There are places that give these things away for free, they have legal CYA that I don’t, and I can’t think of it as a bad thing that a sexually active kid visits a health center and has the opportunity to ask questions/talk to a health counselor before screwing in the back seat.
No, but I would happily drive the kid (or direct them) to the nearest other place they could buy them themselves. I live in crowded suburbia, so it’s not like there’s only one pharmacy in town–there are DOZENS. If you’re old enough to fuck, then you’re old enough to slap a pack of condoms on the register.
I would also (silently) question why the fuck they went to THAT drugstore when someone who knows their parents works there. But that’s not really relevant, I suppose.
I’ve lived in communities that were small enough that everyone knew everyone. And everyone gossiped about everyone. I don’t think that gossiping about condom sales violates HIPAA, though gossiping about Plan B certainly would. And yeah, I’ve lived in places where there was ONE pharmacy in town, and the next pharmacy was over an hour away.
