Birth Control

My apologies about the controversial nature of the following post, but I have reached the point where I can no longer stay silent on this topic.

Women's increased access to birth control has been in the news a lot recently.  Honestly, it never occurred to me that a mandate that insurance cover birth control would be so controversial.  Why?  Because it was always medically necessary for me.  Indeed, it still is.  As I previously mentioned:

Whether it was ruptured ovarian cysts, extremely severe Mittelschmerz, endometriosis, or excessively long and heavy periods, I have always felt at war with myself.  My cycles started when I was 9 and I was on birth control by age 16 to regulate my body and stop the cysts.

Flash forward to yesterday.  Yesterday, I ovulated.  (Honestly, before all this crap broke out in the media, I might have thought telling people that bit of information was TMI.  Now, it seems rather tame.  And, given how interested those in politics appear to be in what happens in my uterus every month, now they know.)

For most people, ovulation isn't a big deal.  There are women who pay big money for digital kits to tell them when it's about to happen.  Not me.  I just wait for the giant pain that feels like my appendix rupturing.  Yup.  Totally serious.  When my appendix ruptured in 1996, I didn't go to the hospital for 24 hours because I honestly thought it was my regular ovulation pain and only realized something was wrong when it didn't get better.  I dread every month wondering where I will be and what I will be doing when it hits me.  I keep heating pads and Aleve in my purse, my car, and my home so that I am likely to have them at a moment's notice when the pain starts.  And when it starts, it just hits.  There's no real build up.  I have roughly one minute to decide if this is about to be "it."  And Lord help me if I'm wrong.

So, back to yesterday.  As I sat on the sofa last night waiting for my husband to bring home my child, "it" began.  By the time Phil got home, I was curled up in a ball in the hallway, crying quietly so as not to freak out my daughter.  Phil fed Lil' Bit and gave her her first evening medication, but he had to leave to lead Wednesday night services and I was in no condition to take care of her.  Fortunately, my dear friend was nearby and came over to give Lil' Bit her meds, bathe her, and get her to bed while I lay on the couch waiting for the pain to stop.  We got lucky someone was available yesterday.  That won't always be the case.  And not knowing when and where I am when it hits is an even bigger problem now that I have to think about being able to take care of Lil' Bit.

And so it was that today, the infertile woman who cannot get pregnant from having sex went on birth control.  Why?  Because the way that birth control works is by making you NOT ovulate.  For me, it is a singularly magic pill that will make my life so much better and does what no other medication can.  But, because insurance is NOT required to pay for it, I have the privilege of paying roughly $50 a month so that I don't become incapacitated and feel like my appendix has ruptured.  Because it's OPTIONAL.  Because it's not medically necessary.  I call bullshit.  Insurance covered my accutane to get rid of my severe cystic acne and that was WAY more optional than birth control.  [Incidentally, it was while I was on accutane that insurance HAD to cover birth control--because it was medically mandated that I be on it given the severity of birth defects associated with pregnancy during accutane use.]

Furthermore, even assuming that every woman in the world used birth control only to prevent pregnancy and not to treat any other medical condition, it would SAVE insurance companies money because they wouldn't have to pay for all the medical costs involved with pregnancy and it would SAVE taxpayers money by having fewer women with unintentional pregnancies requiring welfare, medicaid, and other social safety nets.  And, quite honestly, if birth control were covered by insurance and more widely accessible, resulting in significantly fewer unintentional pregnancies, wouldn't that go a long way toward making abortion unnecessary?  I can't understand why on earth anti-abortion advocates aren't running around fighting harder for insurance companies to cover birth control!

But, back to my main point.  Birth control is prescription medication that treats multiple medical conditions.  Whether it is appropriate is a medical decision made between a patient and her physician.  Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.  And I'm not buying.