Can you buy the pill without a prescription?

Take a trip to your local Planned Parenthood clinic.

No.

No. It’s a prescription medication. But it’s also very easy to get a prescription without getting parents, insurance, or your regular doctor involved. Listen to the wise mouse. :)

In the UK you can only get the pill on prescription,but you can buy the Morning after pill over the counter.

The pill is a script at this point mainly because they want you to get a PAP smear to protect your health. Most likely you are having otherwise unprotected sex if you are on the pill, and something like 80% of women are exposed to HPV, which some strains can lead to cancer. Also, there are many different pills, and generally docs want you to start on a low dose, see if you get any break through bleeding, and if you do bleed midcycle increase the dose. It is not like taking an aspirin.

So, I’ll echo again listen to @SuperMouse. And, when you can, donate money to Planned Parenthood to keep it well and running, and vote against right wing social conservatives who want to take your right as an individual from having access to these services. That’s my rant :) thanks for listening.

Not legally.

@JLeslie , having a pelvic exam and Pap is no longer required before obtaining the pill from Planned Parenthood or other GYN providers. Things started changing about 10 years ago, partly in an effort to get teens to think about birth control before they became sexually active.

When I see a teenager for a first visit, I’m doing a review of her medical history to make sure she’s a good pill candidate (the most common risk out factor is migraines with aura), and then a lot of discussion about how the pill works, how to remember to take it, what to expect the first few months, etc. If she’s a virgin, I do a general exam but not pelvic. If she’s been sexually active, I want to get STD cultures, and do a pelvic, but individualize whether to do a Pap.

At this point, the experts, based on the latest research, recommend waiting for 3 years after first sexual experience before getting the first pap smear. The reason is that young women generally have good immune systems, and yes, many of them will contract HPV viruses, but the majority of them will clear the virus on their own over a year or two. By waiting to test, we avoid the temptation to over-react and treat something that has a good chance of taking care of itself. By the time you get to the 3 year mark, the HPV infections that are not going to resolve without help will still be in the early stages and easily treatable.

@MagsRags shows you how long it has been since I was a teen. Good you chimed in :).