Telehealth – Finding Alternatives to Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood was already expanding telehealth offerings, and the Covid crisis caused an upsurge. Now they have it commonly available in most U.S. states. They’ve now added markers on the list of services they list on the web page for each center:

They have also now added Virtual Health Centers, which are listed and linked at the bottom of this page.

Of course, the same circumstance that made PP expand telehealth (or “telemedicine”) has made others do so as well. The Community Health Centers may also offer telehealth – and if they do, they almost undoubtedly offer a much larger range of services than PP does, which would be a major selling point for them. (This is of course true of medical services in general.)

Currently, Planned Parenthood Direct offers an app and gives information about their telehealth services. This app doesn’t yet offer STD testing and treatment, though many of the centers mark this service with a telehealth marker; see our page on STDs.

PP Direct currently offers: birth control, UTI treatment, ella (emergency contraception), and the abortion pill (available in HI, IL, MD, MN, OR & WA).

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

Recently, PP has much more commonly added UTI diagnosis and treatment to its list of services for its mission of “sexual health.” Sex is one of the many things that can trigger a UTI by its moving of bacteria. Using spermicides, diaphragms, and condoms – all of which PP offers – also raises the risk of a UTI.

UTI goes well with telehealth; diagnosis is done by asking the patient questions, rather than by lab testing. The current common medical treatment is antibiotics. However, if there’s no UTI, that could do more harm than good. This is a point readily stated on the websites of facilities offering telehealth treatment for UTI, including PP.

Given that there can be problems with overuse of antibiotics, there are some medically recommended home remedies that require no telehealth at all (such as cranberries and probiotics). They could be tried first, with the prescribed antibiotics only as a back-up if they don’t work.

But there are many, many places offering telehealth for UTI – too many to list here. They’re easy to google, and anyone who wants to figure out the best local alternatives can probably find them that way.

People are already unlikely to find PP for this service by googling. If they do, PP will only be in a list with a lot of others. The reason people go to PP is the name recognition and/or already being accustomed to going there.

So what tactics can we use to get people who want to use telehealth services for a UTI to go elsewhere than PP? See our action page for general ideas. If anyone has ideas specific to telehealth, and especially if you’ve tried it with some good results, let us know or write it up as a blog post so we can share it with others.

Birth Control Pills

Currently with birth control on telehealth, PP only offers pills. Other forms of chemical birth control (IUD or ring) require a doctor’s visit. Non-chemical forms of birth control (barrier methods and fertility awareness) don’t require prescriptions and PP doesn’t include them.

Below are the ten birth control pills that Planned Parenthood Direct says are offered through telehealth. Each is linked to the reviews at Drugs.com – not simply technical information (which the site also offers), but the lived experience of real women.

The reviews on the drugs.com site can be shown to women to suggest why they might prefer to seek alternatives to what Planned Parenthood offers. Women who want to add their voices to the reviews with honest accounts of what happened to them can also help spread the truth.

Note: all of these are from a company called Afaxys, and are generic equivalents of common brands. They’re commonly available through public health providers – there are many alternatives to PP, for those intent on using these products.

Aubra EQ
Chateal EQ
Cyred EQ
Jasmiel
Tarina 24 Fe (no reviews)
Tarina Fe 1/20
VyLibra
Tri-VyLibra (no reviews)
Tulana