Several mobile apps are now offering birth control pills to women as young as 14 years old.
This particular advancement in healthcare access is making doctors' appointments obsolete. Is this particular mobile trend normal?
With several mobile apps such as Nurx and Lemonaid offering deliveries for birth control pills and even emergency contraception, people can easily get this particular medical assistance with just a few clicks on their smartphones.
Apart from the obvious convenience these mobile apps offer, the services also appease some of the concerns some women have when it comes to getting birth control access.
While improved access to healthcare is a good thing, the question now is should you?
Experts Weigh In
"Look, if I can order something on Amazon and they're going to drone-deliver it half an hour later to my house, of course we're going to think of better ways for women to get birth control," said Dr. Nancy Stanwood, the chairwoman of the board of the U.S. Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Stanwood, who had been uninformed of the new apps and their services, added that this access to birth control pills is "certainly an improvement" among women who have internet and smartphone access.
"Contraception has been identified as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century by CDC, It is a great benefit that our field can provide," said Dr. Nathaniel G. DeNicola, a clinical associate at the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania.
DeNicola has no affiliations with the mobile app Nurx. However, DeNicola believes that the internet-based access to birth control pills is an advancement in the field of women's health.
Is The Practice Safe?
A 2014 statement from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supported the over-the-counter (OTC) release of oral contraceptives. They highlighted that these pills have been proven safe to use even without a doctor's prescription.
In the United States, the state of Oregon became the first one to allow pharmacies to distribute birth control pills without prescriptions from doctors.
Nurx has doctors who can answer the app users' questions or assist in changing prescriptions. DeNicola added that for women who are having problems with their current birth control pills or are experiencing side effects, a face-to-face conversation is the better option. But for many women, the birth control pills are safe and effective.
