Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

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Besides the questionable effectiveness, the fact is that periods aren't nearly as regular as this stuff would like folks to believe, and this is completely inappropriate for women with highly irregular periods.

Hormones cloud all sorts of otherwise reasonable judgement as well - I'm guessing if you pay attention, you'll notice it in yourself as well.

In addition, this can be dangerous for those that shouldn't get pregnant for health reasons, yet can't get sterilized (there are many doctors that won't sterilize childless people, nor folks that are young - and it is often not a covered procedure).

Folks that have reasonable intelligence, pass high school biology, and have a reasonable understanding of health should understand these down sides. A bit of understanding of risks and statistics would probably lead the person to assume it is a lesser risk to use another form of contraception or two.

  there are many doctors that won't sterilize childless people, nor
  folks that are young - and it is often not a covered procedure

This is very strange. Sterilizing people who can't safely get pregnant ought to be a no-brainer, including (especially?) from an insurance perspective.

What I know is stories from articles such as this: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-13/health/ct-met-...

I know it wasn't covered by insurance when I was younger (I'm in my late 30's), though I didn't know it would be somewhat risky for me to be pregnant at the time, if it is possible at all. I've simply never wanted children, and the procedure wasn't covered by insurances let alone finding a doctor that would do it. I don't know if they became something covered under the recent health care changes as I don't live in the states any longer. I'd often not been able to pay the copayment anyway, unfortunately.

From an insurance perspective, the cost-effective and less risky option is to do birth control, either pills, shots, or IUD's to prevent such a thing from happening, I'd think.

The effectiveness is fine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_me...

You don't need to have regular periods, I am not talking about the rhythm method, I am talking about fertility awareness. You accurately detect the hormonal changes which precede ovulation. It does not matter if you ovulate early or late, because you are detecting the changes that precede it, not guessing when it will happen based on days passed.

And there is absolutely no doctor who will refuse to sterilize a woman whose life would be at risk from pregnancy.

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