The Journal

Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Opinion/Editorial

Before a friend of mine at Webster University started the NuvaRing she had a problem. She was sexually active and could not afford birth control. She did not want to use her insurance in hopes of avoiding her parents' involvement. She said even if she could use the insurance, the co-pay was more then she could afford, and even on the NuvaRing she has still found herself in the middle of a pregnancy scare.

Many universities across America have tried to make birth control available on their campuses, including Darmouth University and University of Missouri, St. Louis. However, after the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 passed through Congress student clinics no longer qualify for price cuts from pharmaceutical companies. This caused a sharp rise in campus birth control prices. At Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg birth control prices has tripled for students.

However, one St. Louis university is doing its part to help not only college students but all women to attain affordable and effective birth control. At Washington University a three-year study called the Contraceptive Choice Project is being conducted to remove financial barriers of contraceptives by studying the effectiveness of many birth control methods.

We are in the midst of some important research, and women, especially college students, should take advantage of this opportunity. There has never been a study of this scale done on the efficiency of contraceptive, and it could very well change how women obtain birth control.

The study will try to encourage the usage of long-term reversible contraceptives, such as Intrauterine devices (IUD), which can last three years. They will study general satisfaction with birth control methods and how long women use a chosen contraceptive. The project will also try to answer reasons why women choose a certain method, the satisfaction and continuation of a methods side effects of all methods, and how sexually transmitted diseases effect the method one chooses.

The project will enroll 10,000 women ranging from ages 13-45 in the St. Louis area. If qualifications are met, women are given the contraceptive of their choice to use for three years. If they are dissatisfied with a product a different contraceptive can be used at any time in the study. Women can choose between condoms, pills, NuvaRing, deprovera shots, the patch, implant or an IUD. Each woman involved will pay no costs to participate

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