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Privacy, cost and actually getting hold of it

A method that is right on paper and impossible at home is the wrong method.

Lesson 2 of 4

10 min Text

What this lesson says

  • Several methods are provided free through public health facilities under the National Health Mission
  • Availability varies by state and by individual facility, so ringing ahead saves a journey
  • Free does not mean unsupported: counselling and follow-up are part of it
  • A method that leaves nothing to find at home is a reasonable thing to ask for
  • Ask what follow-up costs before you agree to the first appointment, not after

This is general education. It is not advice about your own situation, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.

Written lesson.
  1. 1. A method you cannot obtain, afford or keep private is not an option, however suitable it is clinically. These constraints belong in the conversation and they are the ones women most often leave out.
  2. 2. On cost: a range of methods is provided free through public health facilities in India under the National Health Mission — condoms, oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptive pills, the intrauterine device including immediately after childbirth, the injectable contraceptive, and sterilisation. The implant has been introduced in some states. Delivery runs through sub-centres, primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals, with ASHA workers distributing some methods at community level.
  3. 3. Availability is not uniform. A method listed in a national programme may not be stocked at your nearest centre on the day you go, and some have been rolled out state by state. The facility itself is the only reliable source, and a phone call saves a journey. AskHer has not verified what is available near you and will not pretend otherwise.
  4. 4. Free does not mean unsupported. Counselling should come with any method, free or paid, and you are entitled to ask the same questions about suitability, side effects, what your bleeding will do and how to stop that you would ask anywhere else.
  5. 5. On privacy: if nothing may be findable at home, say so. Some methods leave nothing to keep; others come in a packet. Some need a visit every few months; others do not. There is usually a way to arrange it, including asking that any message or call about it says nothing about the subject. Ask what will be written where, and what a follow-up reminder would say.
  6. 6. On the money nobody mentions: ask what the follow-up costs. A fitting fee that sounds reasonable and a review appointment charged again three months later are one decision, and you should be told both before you agree to the first. If a package is offered, ask for the whole price in writing.

All lessons in this course

  1. 1 Deciding what matters to you, before anybody offers you a method 10 min
  2. 2 Privacy, cost and actually getting hold of it 10 min Reading now
  3. 3 Switching, stopping, and what your cycle does next 11 min
  4. 4 Saying it in the room, and what to do if you are not heard 9 min

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