When it comes to women's health, getting proper medical care and attention can be an uphill battle. While regulations regarding birth control access, as well as issues of affordability, are still ongoing, one company hopes to make one aspect of your birth control journey a little easier: Nurx.co, a birth control delivery app, is here to bring birth control right to your door.
That's right! Nurx allows you to order your birth control and have it delivered right to your door, saving you a trip (or 10) to the pharmacy. The app is pretty straightforward: First, the patient registers with Nurx and fills in her health and insurance information (yes, they even take insurance!). Then, she selects the type and brand of birth control she wants — so whether you use oral contraceptives, the patch, the NuvaRing, or anything else, you're all set. A doctor then reviews the patient's health information and requests, and so long as everything checks out, the doctor can send the prescription to a partner pharmacy, which then delivers it straight to the patient. It's not unlike the way ordering contact lenses from 1-800-CONTACTS works, except that it's, you know, geared towards helping you not get pregnant instead of helping you see.
Nurx plans to offer emergency contraception next, followed by Truvada for PrEP! For those who aren't familiar, PrEP is a really important drug that was released a few years ago, which is up to 99 percent effective at reducing your risk of becoming infected with HIV.
The only catch? As of now, the app is only available to users in California.
California, incidentally, was already considered one of the best states for women's reproductive rights, even prior to the development of the Nurx app. Birth control is a hotly debated topic that a lot of people (especially male politicians) want to get under their thumb. For many women, access to reproductive health care is a serious burden, as providers can be limited. For example, 63 percent of women in Tennessee live in a county without an abortion provider. That's more than half of women in the entire state!
Even if you have access to birth control, insurance doesn't always cover the cost. Between threats to defund Planned Parenthood and the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby, allowing for religious exemptions for employers who don't want to cover birth control for employees, it's been a rough year for women's reproductive health. Hopefully, apps like Nurx will continue to grow in popularity, and become available to more women nation wide.
Image: Andrew Zaeh for Bustle; Giphy (2)
