Nurx Introduces On-Demand Birth Control Delivered to Your Door
Obtaining birth control should be simple, but as Amy Schumer famously spoofed in a skit, that's hardly the case in the U.S right now. Ilyssa, a 25-year-old university professor and fitness blogger, for instance, had a physician who prescribed her birth control pills covering only six months at a time. She went through the hassle of scheduling doctors' appointments, coming in, getting another prescription, heading to the pharmacy, and repeating over and over again. "It's super inconvenient to schedule an appointment to see a physician just to get another refill on the same prescription I've had for four years," she says, "I was like, 'There's got to be another way.'" That's when she discovered Nurx.
Nurx, which launched in California in December and New York this week, is a new online service that streamlines the process of getting birth control by delivering it to your door in just 24 hours–or if you're in San Francisco, two hours. It's free for those who have insurance (you simply send photos of your insurance card) and $15 for those without. How does it work? Through the messaging system you answer eight questions to get started with three months' worth of your choice of contraception, which will be prescribed by a physician licensed in your state (if you prefer to, you can also have Nurx share information with your primary care physician). Currently, Nurx offers multiple brands of pills, the patch, the ring, and automatic refills, as well as emergency contraception, Plan B, and HIV antiviral Truvada. Beyond the convenience of delivery, there's also minimal middleman interaction aside from potential follow-up with doctors, who you can conveniently reach via text (say, if you panic about missing a pill and need to know next steps).
"Birth control is an essential part of most women's lives–I feel like it should be as simple as buying a pack of gum or Advil or allergy medicine, or anything else that you take on a daily basis," Nurx user Lauren, 27, who previously had to visit the pharmacy monthly for refills, tells us, "It's honestly a game changer."
The founders of Nurx are two men: Hans Gangeskar, a former attorney, and Edvar Engesæth, a physician. While discussing how Nurx came to be, Gangeskar noted the conversation in the U.S. surrounding the "war on women" and reproductive rights (see: the movement in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, a popular provider of birth control). "People don't get birth control, especially in the U.S. where it's so controversial," Gangeskar says, "We realize that there are a lot of people in rural areas, or younger women who may not have their own doctor who find it intimidating to go to their parents' doctor." Currently, Nurx is for women 18 and up and available in two states (with expansions to Washington, D.C., Illinois, and Washington state in the works).
Birth control should be as simple as buying a pack of gum, or Advil, or allergy medicine.
Gangeskar tells us the team is passionate about putting people in charge of their health, "[Nurx] makes people take ownership rather than having this passive, paternalistic experience when you go into the doctor's office and the doctor tells you, 'You should have this, and you should do this.' That's someone else telling you what to do with your body, which I think is very negative," he says, explaining he hopes to see medicine evolve from its "top-down" experience where patients feel less involved. "Giving as much control to the user of the experience as possible is something that we need to change in the healthcare system," he says.
Of course, it's still extremely important to see a gyno once a year for a pelvic exam, to be screened for cervical cancer, and to discuss your birth control options and reproductive health with your doctor. But Nurx is definitely a step in the right direction.
