Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Washington, D.C., lawmakers are considering a bill that will make birth control pills, patches, and vaginal rings available to consumers without prescriptions. Councilman David Cantania introduced the bill, which has the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scratching its head on how the process will work if the bill is passed into law. No such forms of contraception are legally available over-the-counter in the United States. Pilot programs to test the sale of nonprescription birth control in Seattle and Portland, Ore., have been discontinued.

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Any kind of hormonal change can elicit a flare of acne, from going on or off birth control, having a baby, or entering perimenopause or menopause. There are a variety of topical and oral acne treatments, including some birth control pills. But before you turn to hormonal therapy to treat those annoying breakouts, you should consider the risks, says Dr. Diane Berson, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

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Bayer has launched a new marketing campaign aimed at encouraging women to understand the risks and benefits of their birth control method, including those offered by Bayer. The drug company boasts the most popular birth control pills on the market – Yaz and Yasmin – which have brought in more than $1.5 billion since 2009. The pills are also bringing something new to Bayer – more than 1,000 lawsuits from women who claim they were not adequately warned by the company of the serious health risks associated with Yaz and Yasmin.

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A survey commissioned by Bayer Healthcare of 1,000 women aged 20 to 40 found that 39 percent had slept with a boyfriend by their third date. But many didn’t tell even their closest friends. As many as 11 percent slept with their most recent partner on the first date, and another 28 percent say they gave in to their sexual wantings by the second or third date. Despite all this intimacy, the poll also found that more than half of the women surveyed – 56 percent – say that the person they are sleeping with is not the person they are most comfortable discussing contraception with. Ten percent said that even discussing birth control with their doctors made them uneasy.

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