Provider to Provider

This is the section where we post articles written by your fellow Providers to keep you informed about the latest developments in birth control and health care for young women.

This is the section where we post articles written by your fellow Providers to keep you informed about the latest developments in birth control and health care for young women. Speaking of your fellow Providers, allow the Chair of our Medical Advisory Group, Dr. Eve Espey, to welcome you to Bedsider Providers.

Got an idea for an article? Contact us if you're interested in contributing.

Here are the topics we've tackled so far:

• Nobody’s perfect: Pill efficacy for the real world - Our patients shouldn’t have to be perfect to protect themselves from accidental pregnancy.

• Excellent care for LGBTQ patients - Here's how to be part of the solution when it comes to the health disparities LGBTQ people face.

• What does the evidence say about combined vs. progestin-only pills? - COCs or POPs? Here are some things to consider when helping a patient pick a pill.

• Changing the conversation about contraception - The most useful tool for providing contraceptive care may be to ask the right questions.

• Pulling out all the stops: Doubling up with withdrawal - Withdrawal is often ignored by health care providers and researchers, but the best studies we have suggest the majority of people in the U.S. have used it at least once in their lives.

• Who is at increased risk of IUD expulsion? - New research holds some surprises about who’s at highest risk of expelling an IUD.

• Birth Control Without Barriers - Providers play an important role in empowering women to choose the contraceptive best for them.

• What do YOU use for birth control? - The pros, cons, and alternatives when it comes to telling your patients about your own birth control method.

• Talking fertility awareness methods with your patients - You may have your doubts about FAM, but what if your patients want to use it?

• Misinformed: What do pharmacy staff say about emergency contraception? - Do you know what info your patients get from pharmacists when they ask about EC?

• Sex, Gender, and Orientation 101 - When it comes to human sexuality, words are an important tool that we as providers can use to better understand our patients.

• Deciding on emergency contraception - How can health care providers help patients make the best decision they can for their emergency contraception?

• No more fainting in your practice - It happens all the time, just as you are preparing to place an IUD, your patient faints. The good news is that if you are alert to the signs of an impending vagal, you can almost always prevent loss of consciousness.

• Contraception as empowerment - Change the birth control conversation from reactive to proactive.

• Birth control when you're living with HIV/AIDS - The 1.1 million people in the U.S. living with HIV or AIDS may have heard that their choices of birth control are limited. The good news is that many methods—including some of the most effective ones—should still work well for them. So let's talk details.

• Open enrollment is over: Can you still get covered? - Your patients may not know that certain life changes mean they’re eligible to get health insurance (including coverage of their birth control with no out-of-pocket costs!) before open enrollment starts again. Read on to find out more about the options.

• Is birth control info missing from chronic condition care? - Women with chronic health conditions have more medical visits—but are they getting the birth control info they need?

• Got a health condition? Know your birth control options! - Period problems, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer... There’s a method that can work for your patient. Read on for more details.

• IUDs, STIs, and PID: What's the deal? - Some health care providers refuse to give young women or women without children an IUD for fear of STIs and PID. Science tells us that this is just plain wrong: women can safely use an IUD regardless of age or how many babies they’ve had.

• Hello, Skyla! Getting to know the newest IUD - Birth control has many wonderful qualities—but being one-size-fits-all isn’t one of them. So when a new birth control option becomes available—especially one that's long-acting and super-effective—it's kind of a big deal.

• Abuse by birth control sabotage - About twelve years ago, I was working as a doctor in a clinic in California. A young woman came in and requested a pregnancy test. Her test was negative. I asked her if she wanted to be pregnant: “No.” Was she using birth control? “No.”

• Earth Day Reminder: Birth Control is Green! - We applaud anyone who wants to keep the environment in mind while choosing a birth control method. But before your patient discounts all hormonal methods make sure they have the facts: Any birth control is better than no birth control when it comes to helping the planet.

• IUDs are OK: The best new birth control has been here all along - The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists—an association whose members make up 90% of doctors specializing in women’s health in the U.S.—just declared IUDs safe for women of all ages.