No no, I don’t mean prostitution or strip clubs.
Not this time anyway.
I just bought another pack of birth control pills (Yasmin if you are interested), and I paid $56.99 3 packs, which is 9 weeks of pills, not 12 weeks.
I take the pills continuously so that I never have to worry about a period again.
So I did a little math.
$56.99 is the cost for 9 weeks of pills (normally 3 months but there are 3 weeks missing because they assume a period a month).
There are 52 weeks in a year, and with 52 weeks divided by 9 weeks is a factor of 5.78.
5.78 times $56.99 = $329.40
And that’s the cost, $329.40 for pills a year.
And that’s without a company health plan.
I have heard that in the States, that pills can cost $50/month which is $600/year!
Maybe more.
Who ends up paying for that? The woman? The man? Split?
For me, $329.40 a year is a relatively small amount, and kind of the total that BF spends on gas and parking, so I just pay for it, and BF pays for gas and parking.
Works out relatively well since this is small peanuts quibbling if I were to ask for the money. He’d start keeping track of parking expenses and gas, and charge me half of that… it’d be too much to handle in the end.
We just split the major things: Rent, Utilities, Food.
But what happens when it is other items such as condoms?
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I think that a lot of gynecologists have brainwashed most women so that they go straight for contraception pills instead of checking any other alternatives, like IUDs. These have no symptoms, specially if you use the ones without addictional hormones, are as safe as pills and cost a heck of a lot less.
On the plus side:
You can’t forget to take them,
they don’t react with medication,
you won’t stop taking them when you are sick and
have no side-effects other than inserting and check-up every 3-5 years.
On the negative side:
Your menses might be heavier or longer or more painful. I can’t comment on that, IUDs have worked perfectly for me. YMMV.
– If you are squeamish you might not care about the insertion process. I have found it not painful and it happens once every 4-5 years, so I don’t mind putting up with a little discomfort then.
Someone started a discreditation campaign a while back on IUDs, probably someone with the pharma industries, and a lot of women shy away from them.
A couple of my best friends are doctors and they are of the same opinion, but then …they used to work for medecins sans frontieres and they have a lot less invested in selling the right drugs.
As for who pays for them: as far as I can tell most health insurance doesn’t cover them, so the costs for an IUD are around 300 USD plus consultation for those 3-5 years.
I really wish I had gone with the IUD, but I didn’t even know they existed.
:
You might think I am weird, but I think the man should pay for all of those, because he’s the one that wants the “sex”. I can live without it for months/years not to mention days. . . 😉
I have to say it would never occur to me to ask a partner to pay for my birth control. Perhaps in a very long-term relationship where I wasn't earning anything I might consider it but for the most part I consider it to be my body, my responsibility, my choice to take the pill, my cost (and saving myself the potential cost of having a baby).
I'm not on the pill at the moment. Once I stopped using disposable sanitary towels/tampons most of my problems with painful heavy periods stopped or reduced to a level that they were controllable with an occasional non-prescription painkiller. So I stopped taking the pill entirely as I didn't need it for contraceptive purposes at the time (and had started to become more concerned about the environmental impact of taking it as well as the impact on my body of stuffing it full of hormones). I will be getting the coil shortly as I need some ctontraception again now but whatever isn't covered by my insurance, I will pay myself. I would normally expect him to supply condoms but I would also always have some in my house just in case.
Lucky for me, I'm not getting laid, so I don't have to worry about this kind of stuff.
Wait, that isn't lucky at all…
ROFL.
If you don't like paying that much or that often, you could try a hormonal IUD which lasts for 5 years and secretes hormone constantly. It may stop you from having a monthly bleed (then again, it might not). Stacking your pills is a more reliable way to do what you're doing (and you are!)
as for paying, if I didn't have an IUD for free from my health insurance, I'd ask my boyfriend to split it with me. It's not fair for me to bear the brunt of the responsibility to prevent pregnancy.
also: When I didn't have an income, boyfriend paid for birth control. If I had an income at the time, I'd have split it with him.
furthermore: if a guy takes issue with the kind of birth control you choose, it's up to him to pay for another method. Boyfriend didn't like using the condoms I got for free. So, he had to put up the money to pay for polyurethane condoms (it was just a preference, no allergies involved).
Preventing pregnancy is not just the woman's job. If a man doesn't want to help me out in that department, I tell him to screw off and find someone else.
I'm still in college and with my parent's health care plan it's $5/month, so $15 for three months…I know through my college it's $30/month and that's with a student discount! However, condoms are two for twenty-five cents. I don't mind paying for it, since he goes out of his way to buy my favorite wine after a long day at school and cook breakfast for me on the weekends.
When I started taking the pill I paid it myself….at $10 a pack it wasn't a big deal (back in the days when I was still in college). Eventually I started taking a different pill to alleviate some of the PMDD-like symptoms I was feeling, so even though it was more expensive I felt it was benefiting me more than my BF. If he ever wanted me to get back on the pill I'd definitely consider splitting the cost since I'd have to pay $60+ a month!
if you ever get back on the pill, taking B-vitamins daily could help with some of the PMDD symptoms. What doctors don't typically tell you is that birth control pills can contribute to depression-like symptoms and mood swings and vitamins can help that a lot!
I have the most amazing man! He offered to pay for every other NuvaRing refill while we were still dating and now just picks up the whole tab because we're engaged and he literally makes four times as much money as I do. Incidentally enough, he's opposed to paying for tampons! haha
I have paid for my birthcontrol myself – and never has it even been a discussion. I have tried various pills, and found each fairly pricey. Eventually went to an IUD – initial cost about $50 with health coverage. I'm now married in a monogamous relationship. About four years ago I got a Tubal ligation = free with government health care in Canada. So glad I did it – I can't picture myself at 40 with a baby!
Birth control pills are free here in the UK. Gotta love the NHS!
I don't use birth control (I have no need for it), so this isn't an issue for me.
If I did start taking it, I'd pay for it myself…not really sure what my health insurance covers, but from my experience, the copays for most medications (especially generics and/or mail order) are pretty cheap. (Thankfully!)
I have a similar question to Chelsea's…is the "take the pill every day of every week" plan something you decided on your own, or something your doctor recommended? I'd love it if I didn't have to deal with the pain and discomfort of the monthly menstruation, but I wondered how healthy that is, and how that impacts your moods, body, etc. as well as your long term fertility and health.
I paid $40 for 3 months before my university adopted a healthplan, now it's 10x less at just over $4 for 3 months.
$57 is insane.
I take mine continuously for 3-4 months also. It's great!
Generally he pays for the condoms, and I would pay for any birth control pills. We split things by category sort of like you, so it doesn't end up being a problem…it ends up working out much better in the long run so that we don't have to worry about squabbling over a few dollars difference here and there.
I personally think that as long as the partners in the relationship are contributing in about a 50/50 manner, that it doesn't matter who buys what.
My sweetheart has offered to pay for my Nuvaring but I have a health benefits plan so I told him not to worry about it. We take turns buying the lube 😉
Interesting concept to take it continuously – did you consult your physician before making that decision? Do you know if there is any impact on fertility later?
Ahh you're lucky. I've tried doing that taking pill continuously thing and I ended up just getting my period a week later, but it lasted for 2 weeks.
While I'm not morally opposed to having sex outside of marriage or living together unmarried, things like this make me appreciate how marriage simplifies some things since then it is (or should be, in most cases) "our money". Outside of marriage, you just have to figure out the best you can what seems fair considering each other's situations and especially don't let it get in the way of the relationship, as some people do when they start to worry too much about keeping score.
It also makes me appreciate that my husband got a vasectomy. $500, even without insurance paying and also very quick and nearly painless. Not a good choice for people who still plan to have kids, but definitely a money saver if you're not planning on kids (or more kids).
I inconsistently was having my boyfriend help pay for birth control while I was on it (whole other story) because the type I was on started to cost me $125/3 mos supply and yes that does indeed add up to a lot of money! Men should feel lucky enough to be having sex that they should just help pay the cost! lol.
Well, since i'm single, I pay for the pill. And even with my insurance (which by the way, only covers generics) I would pay full price, which is around $80/month. I tried generics for 3 months and it wasn't pretty. So I now just go to Planned Parenthood and get a 6 month supply for around $100 (I am so grateful for PP!). Oh, and i'm on the pill to control my skin. I never had acne before until I stopped the pill last year, and I couldn't deal with the acne outbreaks and rosacea that just one day appeared so I went back on it.
But to answer your question, I wouldn't expect my future boyfriend/husband to pay for half of my pill costs. I hate tit-for-tat accounting.
I pay $60 per month for the Nuvaring. That's with my insurance. I've always paid for my birth control, but the Beau has never been AGAINST paying for it. If we move in together, I imagine that I'd wrap it in with the monthly bills and we'd split the cost.
I had to laugh – In 54 years (well, not 54, subtracting the before sex and after menopause years) I have NEVER had a man offer to pay for birth control. I giggle just thinking about it. Hope you live in a different world than I did!
This is certainly a hot topic. I'm not on the pill anymore, because it does weird things to my skin/boobs/weight/moods/muscles [seriously, I tried about seven different pills, all with the same result :-p]. But when I was, I paid out of pocket, or my parents paid when I was still on their health plan as a teenager and in college.
The out-of-pocket costs for me were about $4-8 each month. I was a member of a health plan in NYC for freelancers and people who couldn't afford regular doctor's office fees, so all the public hospitals offered sliding scale fees for prescriptions, emergencies, and office visits for people on that plan. It was a decent deal. But, yeah, I paid for them myself. And for the extra protection, we used condoms, which we traded off on buying.
Now, Boyfriend and I use condoms, and we typically just stuff a handful into our jacket pockets whenever we're in a bar that has them sitting around. Free condoms are good, right?
you might try a copper IUD, its long term cost is cheaper and you don't get any hormonal side effects. They're good for 5-10 years and there is no daily pill to take and nothing to remember. barring that, you might try a diaphragm or cervical cap if you don't get irritated by spermicide.
Interesting post. I have always thought girls have it harder paying for things like birth control, tampons, etc. every month.
I pay for my pill (about $9 every 3 months thanks to my health plan)…I always have, so I've never thought twice about paying for it myself. I have never bought condoms in my life. I know it's terribly backward of me but it just seems like a guy's thing to do 🙂
With my current health insurance, I can get 3 packs of the Yasmin generic (Ocella) for $10. I would never expect my partner to pay for my birth control. I take birth control also to regulate my period, and I take it whether or not I am in a relationship.
Oh and I paid for it all, it's only a little cost for me and the bonus is i hate getting my periods anyways 🙂
I use Implanon which cost me about $70AUD including the doctor's appointment. It lasts 3 years, no periods apart from the initial spotting I had and I don't have to remember to take pills which is good for me.
I pay $3 for six months of Levlen (cheapest one, the default pill they prescribe). $3 will also get me a prescription for up to 12 boxes of condoms. Thank you, Family Planning association! I'm not sure if it's publicly or privately funded, but that place rocks.
Yasmin – Actually my mum, she's the one that wants me on them, and I can't say I'm complaining. I couldn't afford them myself, but when she stops paying, they'd be my cost.
Condoms (we use both Yasmin + condoms) – Usually him, but I'll buy them occasionally.
I've been on the pill for nearly 10 years and have always paid for it myself (with no prescription coverage). I feel like, regardless if you're in a relationship or not, the person taking/using the birth control method should pay for it. That way if, gawd forbid, you break up or there's a fight or something, you're not giving control of that over to the other person. Also, it gives the person taking/using and paying for it the ability to say whether or not they would like to use another option since it's been their responsibility and decision all along.