thoughts on contraception

I've been thinking about various issues surrounding contraception lately.

I've had some fatigue and lightheadedness lately which has one of my bosses convinced I'm preggers again.... thankfully my chart says "no!" http://www.tcoyf.com/charts/pdf/bc_fahr.pdf

I use over-the-counter birth control. Depending on where I am in my cycle we use either film http://www.vcf-contraceptive.com/whatisvcf.html or condoms. For the past 2 years we've use flexible spending to pay for it. But my flex spending just changed the rules about otc items being eligible. So I've been thinking about if I want to change methods. (decided we're actually pretty happy with what we're using. gonna see if I can get an rx for it. it'll be covered with an rx)

I recently read this article http://bit.ly/aWDABa in The Nation regarding contraceptive sabatoge (thanks momstinfoilhat http://momstinfoilhat.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/accepting-responsibility/ for alerting me to this btw)

And then today this article shows up on my google alerts http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/node/13599 As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted in March "preventative care and screenings for women" will be required to be covered by insurance. This will go into effect 6 months from March 23, 2010. So sometime before September 23 it must be determined exactly what services will be covered under that umbrella.

In light of goals set by the Department of Health and Human Services (Healthy People 2020 http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/Objectives/TopicArea.aspx?id=32&TopicArea=Maternal%2c+Infant+and+Child+Health and http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/Objectives/TopicArea.aspx?id=21&TopicArea=Family+Planning family planning, including contraceptive services, as part of preventive care makes sense. Even though unintended pregnancy is not a disease state, its prevention has important health considerations for both mother and child. Women are fertile from the age of roughly 13-50. Tha's almost 40 years. We spend most of that time actively avoiding pregnancy. So some kind of contraception is going to be necessary for most women for a large portion of their lives.