6B Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Pick your protection: The impact of contraception usage on campus by Amrutha Sivakumar At least getting protected isn't the hard part. While college is a time when many stu- dents choose to explore their sexual free- dom, universities such as Michigan have been on the frontline of advancing sexual health and contraception education. Prescription contraception was first introduced in the United States in the early '60s. While certain progressive states allowed unmarried women under the age of 21 to seek prescriptions, others did not. Uni- versity alum Brad Hershbein, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute, co-authored an academic paper titled "The Opt-In Revo- lution? Contraception and the Gender Gap in Wages" and found that women who had access to contraception when it was first introduced often had a different life path than those who did not. "They were more likely to enroll in col- lege, more likely to get a degree, more likely to get job training when they actually did enter the workforce," Hershbein said. Women at the University of Michigan use contraception at a higher rate than aver- age when compared to U.S. universities, according to the National College Health Assessment survey administered at the Uni- versity in 2010. Through his research, Her- shbein concluded that contraception usage increases with education. Approximately 50 percent of college women nationally are on birth control at any given time, and consume contraception at twice the rate of those not in college before their 40s, he said. Gwendolyn Chivers, director of Univer- sity Health Service's ancillary services, said it is generally a student's personal prefer- ence where they chose to purchase their prescription contraception. While the UHS pharmacy offers some forms of contracep- tion at lower prices than other pharmacies, merchandise stores - such as pharmacies inside grocery stores - offer certain brands at a less expensive price. "We make the effort to make sure that we are in line with as many prescription insur- ance (plans) as we can be with so that we can service our students," Chivers said, add- ing that approximately 80 percent of women on campus who purchased birth control had prescriptions covered by health insurance even prior to the Affordable Care Act. "Today a lot of birth control is purchased with health insurance so you don't have to be concerned of the cost that you used to have to be worried about," she noted. "Some prescription insurance carries birth control at zero copay, and that is all because of the Affordable Care Act." A place on campus Located on the third floor of the UHS building, the Women's Clinic works with enrolled students to provide contracep- tive counseling and prescriptions. Many of their services are covered by the manda- tory health service fee that all students are required to pay. The physicians at the Women's Clinic administer "comprehensive contraceptive counseling" to students who wish to start a birth control prescription but are not sure of what type of contraception they are interest- ed in, said Susan Ernst, chief of UHS Gyne- cology Services. As of spring 2013, the American College Health Association found that 60.4 percent of college students prefer the birth control pill as their primary form of contraception, while 6.5 percent prefer to use an intrauter- ine device. Recently, national organizations such as the American College of Obstetri- cians and Gynecologists have pushed the University to recognize Long Acting Revers- ible Contraception methods. according to Ernst. "More recently, we are trying to talk about the most effective methods first," Ernst said. "In the past we would often talk about the most used methods - such as birth control pill, the ring, or the patch - and then go on to talk about things like the Long Acting Reversible Contraception - such as the implant or the IUD." Ernst added that the possibility of human error when periodically replacing birth con- trol pills, patches and rings increases the chance of unintended pregnancy when com- pared to LRAC methods. Though barrier methods of contraception - such as con- doms, female condoms, dia- phragms and cervical caps have the least efficacy, Ernst said the Women's Clinic still offers them to students as an option. For University alum Sydney Gallup, for- mer president of student organization Stu- dents for Choice, reproductive health is more than just a personal concern. As a part of her role in Students for Choice, Gallup sat through the waiting rooms at UHS, evaluat- ed informational materials and scrutinized the location and quality of their available condoms to evaluate ways to recommend improvements to the same. "At the time I was paying $1,000 a year for pills that for most of the time had horrible side effects, and I was working a shitty job downtown to help pay for it," Gallup said. "I was paying $45 dollars a week, while being a full-time student, to pay for birth control - which was pretty silly." Gallup said she found many of the pam- phlets were outdated and didn't include comprehensive information on IUDs. Fur- thermore, she said the pamphlets did not help women learn about the questions they should be asking about their reproductive health. "If (UHS) is not going to redirect students to a place like Planned Parenthood and they want them to overcome these barriers, they need to cover all their bases," she said. "Oth- erwise they're really cheating students from knowing about reproductive health." Gallup added that because she believes contraceptives are often stigmatized on col- lege campuses, many students she spoke to found it difficult or embarrassing to take condoms from UHS. Though the condoms are offered for free, she said the fact that they are not placed in a discrete location and are not from a major brand dissuades stu- dents from using them. Located a floor above the Women's Clinic, sexual health educators at Wolverine Well- ness also work with students and advise on contraceptive options. While the Women's Clinic looks at a patient's medical history to determine their optimal contraceptive method, Wolverine Wellness connects students with public health professionals to provide general health advice. Laura McAndrew, a sexual health educa- tor at Wolverine Wellness, said students are often concerned about whether their insur- ance providers would cover contraception and if their parents would find out about their contraception usage. While Wolverine Wellness can't answer many of those ques- tions directly, it helpspoint students in the right direction. A risky affair As the number of contraceptive options increase and the Affordable Care Act improves accessibility, weighing the associ- ated risks and side effects of contraception becomes a daunting task for many. Gallup said she believed the primary problem with contraception awareness on campus was misinformation. Anti-Planned Parenthood protests organized by the Planned Parenthood Project, and clinics - such as Arbor Vitae - frequently give out what she said is false information to women about their contraceptive options. "That is a big problem because their advertisements are really present on cam- pus," Gallup stressed. "It doesn't help with the stigma that women oq campus face, because if they do go there thinking they can go discuss contraceptive options, they are essentially shamed out of it." While contraception options that include estrogen and progesterone hormones have inherent risks, including heart attacks and strokes, Ernst said this was not a major con- cern for most healthy women. Common side effects such as nausea and breast tenderness are typically not dangerous and diminish over time, she added. "We always outline those risks but when you look at the chance of risk for a young, healthy woman who doesn't have blood pressure, or cholesterol, or high blood pres- sure, or smokes, or obesity, then those risks are even slightly lower than you would see even in pregnancy," Ernst said. "When you talk about the risks in context of their other health (concerns), I think most people are reassured by the fact that why there are risks from using hormonal contraception, the risks are actually fairly low." Mood changes tend to be a common side effect of hormonal contraception in the first few months after starting a prescription, Ernst said. The Women's Clinic advises stu- dents to discontinue medication if severe mood fluctuates persist after an extended period of time. If mood changes are accom- panied by other psychiatric issues, Ernst said she advised those students to seek help from Counseling and Psychological Servic- es. "Patients more often think that weight gain is caused by their pill and we have to counsel them that it's probably not the pill, and maybe there's some other cause for the gain," she added, referring to the misinfor- mation that students might have in regards to side effects. While the purpose of different University programs might vary, McAndrew said the scientific information provided at each was comparable and the purpose was to provide women with all the information they might need so that they could make informed deci- sions. "Many students are using birth control, and we're happy about that, but at the same time we're happy to be here to address their concerns," she said. on the record "Mismatch my ass." - Basketball Center JORDAN MORGAN, coming offof the court after beating the Tennessee Volunteers, who were projected to win. "No member of the FORUM political party has participated in the technical development of the SafeRide application at any stage of this process. Mr. Greenfield claims to have participated in this development process, but his assertion is simply untrue." - Engineering Senior SUMMIT SHRESTHA to the UEC in a March 25 letter used in last week's CSG lawsuit. "It is embarrassing to even have to address this. None of these claims are true whatsoever. I jokingly posted the photo on Facebook before any talk of a divestment resolution started." - LSA senior YAZAN KHERALLAH, on the The Washington Free Beacon's article assuing her ofposting threateningphotos during the SAFE sit-in last week. "I'm majoring in Political Science, Spanish and American Culture and I hope to go to law school ... The type of law that I want to do is minority or disability law - employment discrimination, that type of thing, so be the voicefor those who can't speak for themselves. I would ultimately like to write policy because I think there needs to be written change in orderfor there to be actual change that occurs." - NICOLE JOSEPH, LSA junior, at the Holi Color Tag Festival on Sunday trending #CancelColbert- #JKRowling #*Opening Day #DeseanJackson #FinalFour[ #HIMYM #UniversityElectionCommision #Obama - Sadly, Michigan won't be moving on this year, having fallen short of winning against the eighth-seeded 21 IKentucky Wildcats, with a last-second y shot by Freshman guard Aaron Harrison over Caris LeVert. TERESA MATHEW/ Daily Some are calling for the political satirist to be pulled from the air after he jokingly tweeted about his "Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." "How I Met Your Mother" came to an end this past week after nine years. The surprise ending left viewers stunned and betrayed. A firestorm of angry fans took Twitter and Facebook to give the writers a piece of their minds. ----0C1 F Did you see everyone lined up outside of the Union and the Intramural Building? They were there to get tickets for the president, who is on campus today to talk about raising the federal minimum wage.