Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
Speaker 1: As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 1: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 1: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money podcast for
Speaker 4: millennials who want financial freedom. Recently, you guys slim to
Speaker 4: our DMS on one of our Friday episodes about who
Speaker 4: should pay for contraception and there also is currently a
Speaker 4: Senate inquiry into reproductive health care in Australia, so we
Speaker 4: thought we should have a bigger conversation on the show
Speaker 4: about this because it doesn't to.
Speaker 2: Be talked about. Victoria.
Speaker 4: You've got some feelings, I have feelings back, and you're
Speaker 4: with us as ever are, so let's hear them.
Speaker 2: I have so many big feelings, and I think that
Speaker 2: today's episode is very, very welcome because today we are
Speaker 2: not only just talking about contraception, but who should pay
Speaker 2: for it, how hard it is to access, and what
Speaker 2: the costs and stat on this one hundred percent vital
Speaker 2: and basic human right is and are. And I am
Speaker 2: really excited about it because I feel like it's not
Speaker 2: just a conversation that extends to women having sex with men,
Speaker 2: like it's women who are sexually active, men who are
Speaker 2: sexually active, just people who are sexually active in general.
Speaker 2: And you and I have had this conversation offline where
Speaker 2: it just gets a bit weird, like who pays for
Speaker 2: war in different circumstances, And I hope that this can
Speaker 2: help you, guys, I guess, clear it up, but not
Speaker 2: only clear it up, but have cleaner and easier conversations
Speaker 2: around it. Like it shouldn't be a topic where it's icky.
Speaker 2: It should just be a conversation where it's kind of
Speaker 2: like if we got milk in the fridge and you go, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's milk in the fridge, and then like that's the
Speaker 2: end of the conversation. And it's not a he said
Speaker 2: she said, like, it's just what it is, if that
Speaker 2: makes sense. I want to start off this whole episode,
Speaker 2: Beck by just I guess framing a few things. So
Speaker 2: it is vital obviously to protect against STDs and STIs
Speaker 2: and that is a given, But this conversation is mostly
Speaker 2: looking at contraception, of which barrier protections are also used.
Speaker 2: And it should always, always, always be okay to discuss
Speaker 2: this with your partner. And if not, Beck, red flag,
Speaker 2: red flag, biggest red flag in the entire world. It
Speaker 2: is all too common for conversations around women's bodies to
Speaker 2: be weaponized in abusive relationships, and that is a big
Speaker 2: red no no from me. And if you need support,
Speaker 2: we have linked to one eight hundred respect in our
Speaker 2: notes and please, please please get support from someone you trust.
Speaker 2: Every single person's body is different, so support from your
Speaker 2: GP or doctor about what contraception is right for you
Speaker 2: is going to be really important as well. And just
Speaker 2: because it works for one person, which we'll probably discuss today,
Speaker 2: it might send somebody else absolutely batty like it has
Speaker 2: done for me, and that doesn't mean it is the
Speaker 2: right fit for you. So I feel like conversations, you know,
Speaker 2: ad brunch with your girlfriends were You're like, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 2: what have you got? And you're like, I've got the Marina. Like,
Speaker 2: it's not the best way to decide what type of
Speaker 2: contraception you should or could have. It's actually really important
Speaker 2: to discuss this with a healthcare professional and somebody who
Speaker 2: can put you in I guess the driver's seat, not
Speaker 2: just your friend being like, oh it works great for me,
Speaker 2: you should get it too, because that happened with the
Speaker 2: implant on in my arm and then I bled for
Speaker 2: three months straight and I went absolutely ape shit, like
Speaker 2: it was one out of ten cannot recommend. My gosh,
Speaker 2: that sounds so brutal. Yeah, but you know when you're
Speaker 2: just like, why is this working for all of my friends?
Speaker 2: And then when I went back to my regular GP,
Speaker 2: he was like, yeah, yeah, like why did you go
Speaker 2: to some other GP and get this? And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: because I look them up and they were like, you know,
Speaker 2: female reproductive specialists, and that made sense. And he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I could have told you that wasn't gonna work
Speaker 2: for you because this other contraception didn't work for you.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, could have just kept my
Speaker 2: health care consistent and we wouldn't have a problem. Could
Speaker 2: have saved a bit of money. Yeah, bit of money,
Speaker 2: bit of time, bit of stress, a lot of anger,
Speaker 2: a lot of anger. But that is okay, And I
Speaker 2: mean to really just reiterate that, Beck, it's not a
Speaker 2: one size fits all and your contraceptive needs are as
Speaker 2: unique as you are, so talk to someone who knows
Speaker 2: what they're talking about. It not just your mates. When
Speaker 2: I was single, Beck, it was actually about me protecting me.
Speaker 2: But then as soon as I was in a relationship,
Speaker 2: that really changed and it became my view that contraception
Speaker 2: is a cost of being in a relationship and that
Speaker 2: goes for everybody. But in that episode, Jess then said, oh, well,
Speaker 2: I've always paid for it, and she uses the pills,
Speaker 2: so it's not quote that expensive for her in her circumstances,
Speaker 2: with her financial situation. But we're all different, and I
Speaker 2: I guess that's why it's important to open up this conversation.
Speaker 2: And when you suggested we did a whole episode on this,
Speaker 2: I was like, actually that's a really good idea, Beck,
Speaker 2: Thank you v smart woman. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: And it's funny too, because I think that I went
Speaker 4: away and thought about it, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I don't need to use contraception for the traditional reasons,
Speaker 4: but I have considered it to stop my period because
Speaker 4: periods can be annoying and for all these other reasons,
Speaker 4: and so it's not just for exactly as you say,
Speaker 4: one person, one type of person, for one type of reason.
Speaker 2: It can be for anyone. I love bec that You're like,
Speaker 2: I've thought about using contraception to stop my period, and
Speaker 2: I'm like the exact opposite. I at my whole entire soul,
Speaker 2: am just really hippy dippy, Like I just would be like, no,
Speaker 2: don't stop your period. That's natural. We should be talking
Speaker 2: about regulating your hormones and having a really consistent and
Speaker 2: beautiful period. Yeah, cut it out, put it.
Speaker 3: In the bin.
Speaker 2: Let's not do it. I don't want to do it
Speaker 2: ever again. But I know it is stop that. No,
Speaker 2: I'm like, do you know your fertilities?
Speaker 5: Cool?
Speaker 2: Like I'm one of those HEBDP people. I know when
Speaker 2: I'm ovulating, not because I track it, because I can
Speaker 2: feel it. Wow, it's wild. That is actually very impressive.
Speaker 2: I remember saying that to a doctor a little while ago,
Speaker 2: because recently i've shared a bit about our fertility journey
Speaker 2: online and I won't go into that here, but it's
Speaker 2: funny because when you start talking to doctors about fertility,
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, obviously tracking your ovulation is great. I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: I know when not ogulate and I thought that was
Speaker 2: normal and they were like, what do you mean. I
Speaker 2: was like, you know the little pop that you get
Speaker 2: maybe like twelve to fourteen days after your period ince
Speaker 2: and they're like what. I'm like, yeah, sometimes it's the leftovery,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's the right. Like oh, they're like, what app
Speaker 2: do you use? No, No, I feel it. I can
Speaker 2: feel it. And turns out that's not normal. That's not normal.
Speaker 2: It's impressive though, it's very impressive. It's like a little
Speaker 2: flex that I don't know what it does for me
Speaker 2: when you can literally just track it. But yeah, time,
Speaker 2: So anyway, we'll have another conversation about that.
Speaker 4: Well off mic excitation about it, Syvia. I've read that
Speaker 4: in Australia, one in two women will experience and unplanned
Speaker 4: pregnancy in their lifetime. More than half of these women
Speaker 4: were using at least one form of contraception at that time.
Speaker 4: That info was from MSI Australia formerly known as Maurice Stops.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're a really good plays for research and stuff
Speaker 2: like that, But I guess that kind of leads into
Speaker 2: that's the research back. But it's it's interesting as well
Speaker 2: because I think we all in some form know someone
Speaker 2: who's gotten pregnant unexpectedly. Like I remember in Grade twelve
Speaker 2: when of the girls got pregnant. She was one of
Speaker 2: my girlfriends, and she ended up having honestly the most
Speaker 2: beautiful baby, and she's like killed it at life since then.
Speaker 2: I remember her being like fully nine months pregnant when
Speaker 2: we're doing our Year twelve exams at the end of
Speaker 2: the year, and she was just like the best hustler
Speaker 2: you've ever known. Anyway, I remember her circumstance. She I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure she used contraception, but then she also took
Speaker 2: the morning after pill and still stayed pregnant. Wow, that
Speaker 2: baby was meant to be here. Yeah, like's wild. But
Speaker 2: I've also had a number of other girlfriends experienced unplanned pregnancies,
Speaker 2: and whilst it can be really stressful, it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that contraception is always one hundred percent, right, mm mmmmm.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, this is probably a bit controversial, But I'm wondering,
Speaker 4: what do you reckon if there was something this common
Speaker 4: for men, do you think it would be something that
Speaker 4: would be not discussed? It would just be automatically, very accessible,
Speaker 4: very cheap. Both parties would pay. Like, do you think
Speaker 4: that if it was the other way around and it
Speaker 4: was on the other foot and men had to take contraception,
Speaker 4: how do you think the position would change?
Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting because I don't know what you know
Speaker 2: about biology, Beck, but actually get this, takes two to tango,
Speaker 2: and you actually need a male sperm and you need
Speaker 2: a female egg, yeah, to create a baby. Don't believe it,
Speaker 2: I know, But unplanned pregnancy, like it's not going to
Speaker 2: happen in a female female relationship, not going to happen
Speaker 2: in male male relation, not gonna happen in a lot
Speaker 2: of circumstances that I don't understand. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, guaranteed, every single unplanned pregnancy came from
Speaker 2: those true things coming together. And it blows my mind
Speaker 2: that after two people choose to tango, it's then the
Speaker 2: female having to take that responsibility, and it's apparently the
Speaker 2: female's responsibility to protect themselves and their one egg. Why
Speaker 2: is it my job as a female to protect my
Speaker 2: one egg that I get every single month? Right? Like
Speaker 2: I could have sex literally every single day with a
Speaker 2: different person, and if I got pregnant, it would be
Speaker 2: with one person. Yes, a male could go and have
Speaker 2: sex every single day and get literally every single person
Speaker 2: every single day because he has millions of sperm and
Speaker 2: they regenerate. Why is it not on him? They protect him?
Speaker 2: So true? Why is it not his responsibility? But it's
Speaker 2: my job to keep my one egg? Like what that
Speaker 2: is so true? I'm the bad person if I have
Speaker 2: too much sex, Like, if I have too much sex,
Speaker 2: I'm seen to be maybe not as as kosher as
Speaker 2: somebody who doesn't have as much sex. But when a
Speaker 2: guy does it or get it, guys like, sorry, you
Speaker 2: could have got our entire country pregnant At this point,
Speaker 2: I don't understand. I don't even have that capacity. I
Speaker 2: have the capacity for having one baby in a nine
Speaker 2: month period. Who knows if that baby's going to work
Speaker 2: out for me either because miscarriage is so high. But
Speaker 2: then also it's only with one person. The damage a
Speaker 2: dude could do in nine months, I know, I know
Speaker 2: that's so true that my responsibility.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's kind of like, you know, if you
Speaker 4: have a male dog, the male dog will be sexed
Speaker 4: because it's seven balls chopped off, because they can go
Speaker 4: and impregnate multiple differctly.
Speaker 2: So why is it change when it's a human. That's
Speaker 2: where they you know, yeah, exactly, because we live in
Speaker 2: a patriarchal society. Beck's what it comes to. And I
Speaker 2: really think that if contraception was a male responsibility, it
Speaker 2: would just be second nature, Like you could probably just
Speaker 2: get the pill at the supermarket, to be honest, it'd
Speaker 2: probably be free. At this point. They'd be giving it
Speaker 2: out in schools like it's wild, right, Like they give
Speaker 2: condoms out in schools, And that's the type of contraception
Speaker 2: that is, I guess the biggest responsibility for a male,
Speaker 2: because they're not going to go to their GP and
Speaker 2: get a script for a pill that they can't take
Speaker 2: so that they go, oh, hey, Beck, I'd really like
Speaker 2: to have sex with you. Could you take this pill
Speaker 2: as our form of contraception? Like that's not no exactly
Speaker 2: yet hot right, But like even the research going into
Speaker 2: male contraception I've been looking a lot into recently, and
Speaker 2: they're really worried about it because there's too many side effects.
Speaker 2: But the side effect list of what men would experience
Speaker 2: if they took an oral contraceptive is less than a
Speaker 2: quarter of what the side effect list is for women
Speaker 2: who take oral contraceptives. Really, yeah, isn't that wild? But
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, that's a bit much for men. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't want to put them at that much risk. But
Speaker 2: you put me like, have you ever bought a pack
Speaker 2: of oral contraceptives and pulled out the fact sheet on
Speaker 2: that thing? Like, if you've read it, you're basically gonna die.
Speaker 2: Like every single, like teeny tiny word on that thing
Speaker 2: is going, Oh you could die from this, you could
Speaker 2: die from that. You could also have a stroke. Also,
Speaker 2: you're probably gonna have blood clot issues. You're probably gonna
Speaker 2: have headaches. That's just a give you're gonna die reading
Speaker 2: this reading this paper because it's gonna take so damn long.
Speaker 2: But men, a quarter of that too much risk. I mean,
Speaker 2: we could go on and on about even just like
Speaker 2: the healthcare system of male thresholds. But beck, of course
Speaker 2: we also need I'm not like trashing the pill here
Speaker 2: at all. I have been on oral contraceptives myself before,
Speaker 2: and I know at some point in my life I'll
Speaker 2: probably go back on them. I'm not against them. I
Speaker 2: just think this concept that it's too risky for a
Speaker 2: man to take on a quarter of the risk that
Speaker 2: women already take on and I expected to take on. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: if you are a female having sex with men, and
Speaker 2: I know that a question you would be asked before
Speaker 2: you know, having coitious is are you on the pill?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: They just straight outside are you on the pill? As
Speaker 2: if it's an expectation that I would be putting my
Speaker 2: body through that so they don't have to use a.
Speaker 4: Condom on behalf of everyone like me, I'm so sorry
Speaker 4: to you.
Speaker 2: And what do you mean you're sorry? I'm just kidding you,
Speaker 2: you lucky little shit. Anyway, I think it's funny because
Speaker 2: you know, the more you dig into it, the wilder
Speaker 2: it gets. And I am in a very grateful position
Speaker 2: where you know, I'm married to my husband. I adore him.
Speaker 2: But he really gets it, like he thinks it's wild too.
Speaker 2: He's like, why would you put your body through that?
Speaker 2: Like it's a good question, Pabe, It's a very good question.
Speaker 2: It's fair question. But I could just use a condom,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, why can't every male have this idea
Speaker 2: in their head that it's their responsibility as well, But
Speaker 2: again I'm married. Well, let's go back to what you
Speaker 2: were talking about at the start of this episode. You
Speaker 2: mentioned the current Senate inquiry into Reproductive Healthcare in Australia
Speaker 2: BECK and it's not wrapped up yet, but there have
Speaker 2: been some pretty alarming things that have come out of
Speaker 2: that that really highlight the need for this to be
Speaker 2: further discussed. So let's get into a few of the
Speaker 2: dock points, because not everybody is I guess, as nerdy
Speaker 2: as me and has read everything in that inquiry, so
Speaker 2: I can like cut it down. So first things first,
Speaker 2: doctors and pharmacy groups making submissions to the inquiry have
Speaker 2: actually warned that varying costs of contraception mean thousands of
Speaker 2: women are not accessing the best options for their health
Speaker 2: and called for more products to be added to the PBS,
Speaker 2: which is the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme. And Professor Danielle Masa
Speaker 2: is an advisor in Women's health with the Royal Australian
Speaker 2: College of GPS. She's actually called for a regulatory solution
Speaker 2: that gives Australians access to contraceptive options they need at
Speaker 2: low or no cost, very sexy, saying that they are
Speaker 2: quote essential to women's productive health. I like that. I
Speaker 2: feel like it's good. Right, Yeah, that's really good. It
Speaker 2: kind of just makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense because,
Speaker 2: as we were saying before, if this was a male
Speaker 2: in this circumstance, it would be free, right, I mean
Speaker 2: one can speculate, yeah, it would be free or be
Speaker 2: super cheap because you wouldn't want to impact, you know,
Speaker 2: a man's ability to generate an income. Oh my gosh, no,
Speaker 2: that would be so rude.
Speaker 4: I would die to see what the world would look
Speaker 4: like if men got pregnant. I know, right, but you know, can.
Speaker 2: You imagine the like paternity leave cover if the men
Speaker 2: carried the babies, they'd be like, oh, they're gonna need
Speaker 2: two years off. They're gonna need two years off and fifty.
Speaker 4: Foot rubs like from would be wild point of conception
Speaker 4: to three years after the baby, their.
Speaker 2: Own paternity leaf, their own paternity leaf. Like there is
Speaker 2: no way men should put up with morning sickness and
Speaker 2: go to work and work a forty hour job and
Speaker 2: deal with a toddler. Absolutely not. They'd be like free
Speaker 2: in home help like the guver. It would be. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the government would give men helpers in their houses to
Speaker 2: deal with that. I wouldn't be shocked. But for any
Speaker 2: dude listening, we just plan silly. We're just silly little
Speaker 2: women with silly little opinions. Thing funny, but let's talk
Speaker 2: about the pill. I'm really key to talk about the pill. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got some more stats on the pills. So under
Speaker 2: the topic of the pill, women are being forced to
Speaker 2: pay three times as much for newer birth control pills
Speaker 2: or use older products with potentially worse side effects because
Speaker 2: the most recent contraceptive options are not subsidized and there
Speaker 2: aren't on the PBS. The Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, which lists
Speaker 2: all the medicines that are subsidized by the federal government,
Speaker 2: caps a four month supply of the oral contraceptive pill
Speaker 2: of thirty dollars or seven dollars and thirty cents for
Speaker 2: a healthcare card holder. Although some generic brands are cheaper,
Speaker 2: which is a little bit of a money win. Newer products,
Speaker 2: though beg that are more commonly prescribed, can actually cost
Speaker 2: triple that amount, So three month supply of popular contraceptive pills,
Speaker 2: so like zolion, yeahs and others, they can cost eighty
Speaker 2: seven dollars ninety nine, seventy four dollars ninety nine, and
Speaker 2: eighty three dollars thirty nine, respectively. According to the data
Speaker 2: held by Reproductive nonprofit MSI, Australia, women are paying seventy
Speaker 2: six dollars and thirty nine cents for a three month
Speaker 2: supply of progesterone only pill slender while MICROLT, an older
Speaker 2: progesterone only pill that doctors say can be actually less
Speaker 2: effective and cause irregular bleeding, that's subsidized at eleven dollars
Speaker 2: ninety nine for four months. Oh, it isn't very wild,
Speaker 2: but like it's so unfair, Like if you are a
Speaker 2: lower income earner, even if you're not a lower income earner,
Speaker 2: the difference between paying twelve bucks in like close to
Speaker 2: eighty bucks, that's a lot. Like that's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Like you can't just blink and go, oh, well, that's
Speaker 2: the cost of having good quality contraception. I'm sorry. Why
Speaker 2: do we have to put a cost on good quality
Speaker 2: contraception when we're arguing on the flip side that it's
Speaker 2: a basic human right absolutely not. And then Pharmacy Guild
Speaker 2: Senior Vice President Natalie Willis says, advances in technology over
Speaker 2: the past twenty five years have led to new pills
Speaker 2: that have offered greater benefits in terms of reduced side
Speaker 2: effects and smaller doses. But Beck, these guys aren't subsidized.
Speaker 2: So if you would like, do you have reduced side
Speaker 2: effects and less medication going through your body, that's actually
Speaker 2: going to cost you a lot of money.
Speaker 4: That is I'm not gonna use the F word here,
Speaker 4: but I think you know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say that's fucked. It's messed up. It's
Speaker 2: a messed up, it's a messed up. I couldn't think
Speaker 2: of any other word. It's not scary. It's a word
Speaker 2: that I use as a crutch sometimes, like when I
Speaker 2: really want to emphasize the point, like I don't know, honestly,
Speaker 2: I don't know a word that's more dynamic. You can,
Speaker 2: it's certainly right. You can put the F word in
Speaker 2: anything any good sentence. F word works, bad sentence, F
Speaker 2: word work hundred, normal sentence is real basic. We're just
Speaker 2: trying to absolutely casual. F word works, effod works everywhere.
Speaker 2: I'd say, let's go have a little break, and I'm
Speaker 2: personally going to be looking up other words to use,
Speaker 2: and then we'll come back. Yeah, I heard that this
Speaker 2: swearing too much is a lack of intelligence, So we
Speaker 2: need to come across as very intelligent human beings on podcasts,
Speaker 2: So we'll do some research and we'll be back on
Speaker 2: the flip side. See then, hello, and welcome back to
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, the very eloquent podcast where two
Speaker 2: women who are very culturally diverse talk about smart yeah,
Speaker 2: very important topics with very long words, very long words,
Speaker 2: very long words.
Speaker 4: That we don't have to pause and read first and try.
Speaker 2: No, it's like the finance industry, right, Like I am
Speaker 2: convinced that mediocre, middle aged white men just use complicated
Speaker 2: words to make us feel bad about ourselves and make
Speaker 2: themselves seem smart, because like, when it comes down to it,
Speaker 2: this stuff's not that complicated. But like if they don't
Speaker 2: make it complicated, what do I even do when they
Speaker 2: say they're an investment banker?
Speaker 4: That Now that's a good question, right now, that's a
Speaker 4: very good question.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's why contraception is such a long word. Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, makes sense, that makes sense. Actually story checks out, Malvi.
Speaker 4: We are talking about contraception today and the cost of contraception,
Speaker 4: and it's getting a little bit.
Speaker 2: I would say, would you say heated, we're getting what
Speaker 2: would you say? Maybe we're passionate. Our passion is showing. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: our passion is showing. And honestly, I like the way
Speaker 2: it looks. I just I get really frustrated when it
Speaker 2: comes to, I guess, just this whole topic of equality
Speaker 2: and equity, and I just feel like, in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have to argue to have access for our community,
Speaker 2: for basic human rights and basic human needs. And we
Speaker 2: already know that women in Australia who experience an unexpected
Speaker 2: pregnancy are more likely to be a low income owner.
Speaker 2: And I am going to, you know, extrapolate that out
Speaker 2: and make some predictions that that's because you can't afford
Speaker 2: the health care necessary to get the pill.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: And even when I was at UNI, I was in
Speaker 2: the very fortunate position where I was fully employed at UNI.
Speaker 2: And I mean I have always lived a relatively privileged life,
Speaker 2: right Like, I have been very lucky in that I've
Speaker 2: always been on my parents' Medicare card. I've always had
Speaker 2: Mum and Dad as a fallback, Like I know, if
Speaker 2: I couldn't have afforded a doctor's appointment, Mum would have
Speaker 2: just paid for it. And like we talked about this
Speaker 2: a little while ago when we talked about the bank
Speaker 2: of Mum and Dad, and we talked about this concept
Speaker 2: of having an emergency fund when you don't really have
Speaker 2: an emergency fund. And I've always been one of those
Speaker 2: kids where you know, Mum and Dad aren't wealthy or
Speaker 2: rich by any stretch of the imagination, but they always
Speaker 2: have been that safety blanket of knowing right. And so
Speaker 2: I never really skipped medical appointments because it always was
Speaker 2: written in reach and it could always be bog billed.
Speaker 2: And I mean in twenty twenty three, that has changed
Speaker 2: and bog billing is no longer as easily accessible as
Speaker 2: it once was. But even as a young woman, I
Speaker 2: just couldn't be bothered half the time going back to
Speaker 2: the doctor to get another three month script of the pill. Like,
Speaker 2: and I know that that can be I have ADHD.
Speaker 2: So I am inherently lazy, Like I do not want
Speaker 2: to do that, right, but it's also one of those
Speaker 2: things where it's like, it's not just about access, it's
Speaker 2: about So you're saying I need to go to the
Speaker 2: doctor a minimum of four times a year to collect
Speaker 2: a prescription medication that I can't tell you when the
Speaker 2: last time my husband saw a doctor was No, couldn't
Speaker 2: tell you. That's brutal. If I said time a year,
Speaker 2: I said, bab, who's your GP, he'd be like black
Speaker 2: grand prix what, Yeah, he was a GP? He would not.
Speaker 2: I don't think he would have a normal GP because like,
Speaker 2: men do not see they they should, but they don't
Speaker 2: see the doctor nearly as often as women do because
Speaker 2: we kind of are forced into it. And I just
Speaker 2: think it's to me a wild concept that, yeah, we're
Speaker 2: still arguing for equality, Yeah, equity, and I mean it
Speaker 2: stretches into beck, where are you getting the time for
Speaker 2: these four appointments?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: Definitely definitely V Before the break, we're talking about the
Speaker 4: findings in the Senate inquiry, and I guess, like, and
Speaker 4: forgive me because I actually have no idea about this stuff,
Speaker 4: as you know, but where do we stand in terms
Speaker 4: of long acting and reversible contraceptions?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So before we just talked about general and then
Speaker 2: we talked about the pill, and there's obviously more contraceptive
Speaker 2: options than that. So I guess to dive straight back
Speaker 2: into me giving you some stats and facts about these things.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the long active and reversible contraceptive options.
Speaker 2: So from reading everything, it's glaringly obvious that Australia is
Speaker 2: falling behind as global peers on the use of long
Speaker 2: acting and reversible contraceptives like into uterine devices. So that's
Speaker 2: like a Marina or a what they calling a copper
Speaker 2: coil hormonal ireuds or into unterine devices. These are small
Speaker 2: devices that are basically put into your uterus to prevent ignancy.
Speaker 2: They are subsidized on the PBS and they cost about
Speaker 2: thirty bucks or seven dollars thirty with a healthcare card. However,
Speaker 2: copper IUDs, which some women prefer, BECK and I don't
Speaker 2: think that there's a lot of conversation around this because
Speaker 2: they are far more long acting than something like a Marina,
Speaker 2: which is a name brand. There's lots of different kinds,
Speaker 2: but copper IUDs Beck, they don't actually use hormones. The
Speaker 2: copper is kind of like a natural contraceptive when placed
Speaker 2: in the uterus. But these are more expensive, and they're
Speaker 2: typically between eighty and ninety dollars, and so that's a
Speaker 2: very big difference from like seven dollars thirty if you've
Speaker 2: got a healthcare card and you can't access it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So back to our friend, Professor Danielle Maza, who
Speaker 2: we mentioned just before. She said that IUDs reduce the
Speaker 2: levels of unwanted pregnancies, but there was not enough GP
Speaker 2: training or compensation to encourage their uptake. And she said
Speaker 2: that gps are always trying to tell us the rebate
Speaker 2: is too low to reflect the cost of a practitioner
Speaker 2: to deliver that service. So obviously I'm not a doctor,
Speaker 2: so I don't know how long it takes. But what
Speaker 2: I do know is that there are lots of different
Speaker 2: ways to get an into unine device into your uterus,
Speaker 2: and it depends on I guess, your pain threshold, which
Speaker 2: you know, as women, we are expected to have a
Speaker 2: much higher pain threshold than men, right. And I remember
Speaker 2: talking through this option with my doctor because I have
Speaker 2: had a marina before and it worked really well for me,
Speaker 2: and I went into my GP, my GP explained, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't do it, but you'd have to go to
Speaker 2: this other GP to do it, and like, we could
Speaker 2: do it in the clinic and basically you'd come in Victoria,
Speaker 2: what you do, pop a couple of neurofit and then
Speaker 2: you come in and we do the insertion. You might
Speaker 2: be a little bit crampy, but you should be fine,
Speaker 2: and that will just be the cost of a normal
Speaker 2: GP service. But we only have one doctor in the
Speaker 2: whole clinic who does it, and she's booked out for
Speaker 2: three months because no other doctor was trained in it. Right.
Speaker 2: So I started looking into it, and because I had
Speaker 2: never given birth before, it was recommended. And this is
Speaker 2: me doing my own research, Like my GP didn't suggest this.
Speaker 2: And I now have a new GP who's a legend,
Speaker 2: so if you see me at the GP, it's not
Speaker 2: him that we're talking about. I did a lot of
Speaker 2: research on forums and realized that maybe that wasn't the
Speaker 2: best option because it's actually like a birth pain and
Speaker 2: the bit of cramping that you have because they're opening
Speaker 2: your cervix and putting something in your uterus actually could
Speaker 2: be contractions. Oh isn't that real hard? That's so I
Speaker 2: did a bit more research and I ended up going
Speaker 2: to a fertility clinic to have it put in, and
Speaker 2: I got put to sleep to have it put in.
Speaker 2: And before you get put to sleep, they like take
Speaker 2: you into a GP and you know, you have a
Speaker 2: chat with them and they explain the process. And I said, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm here because I did my own reading and my
Speaker 2: you know, my reading on these forums said that I
Speaker 2: probably should be put to sleep because I've never given birth.
Speaker 2: And that doctor was horrified, like are you saying that?
Speaker 2: Your GP said just pop two in Europan and like
Speaker 2: come in and have this interview to around deserted and
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, like that's what they said. And
Speaker 2: then because I thought I was relatively like you know,
Speaker 2: ahead of my time getting this thing. So I had
Speaker 2: it like maybe eight or nine years ago put in, right.
Speaker 2: I remember then having these conversations with my friends and
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, yeah, that was like the most traumatic
Speaker 2: experience of my life. I had it put in in
Speaker 2: the doctors, and you know, I went into cramps and
Speaker 2: I had contractions for a couple of hours and I
Speaker 2: was like, what while they were away they know, And
Speaker 2: it turns out this is a relatively common experience, which
Speaker 2: is why I also advocate talking to a GP and
Speaker 2: feeling like not only are you heard, but they aren't,
Speaker 2: just like a guest dismissive. And what Professor Daniel Maza
Speaker 2: is really saying is that GPS they don't have the training.
Speaker 2: But also why bother getting the training if you're not
Speaker 2: able to charge more? And I'm not saying that they
Speaker 2: should charge more. There should be a process for this,
Speaker 2: and the PBS should be picking up some of this
Speaker 2: cost to insert these things. But it's just not a thing.
Speaker 2: And I just it blows my mind that when men
Speaker 2: get anything done, immediately put to sleep, immediately offered a
Speaker 2: higher dosage of medication. In fact, I was talking to
Speaker 2: one of my girlfriends who had her wisdom teeth out recently.
Speaker 2: M and her husband had had his wisdom teeth out
Speaker 2: take like a year before, and he was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's fine, they'll give you medication. You know, you'll come home.
Speaker 2: You'll look like a bit of a chipmunk, no worriest worries. Anyway,
Speaker 2: she went got her wisdom teeth out and then was
Speaker 2: like at home complaining about the medication that she was taking.
Speaker 2: And he was like, oh, I think I think she
Speaker 2: ran out of medication. So he went to find some
Speaker 2: of his medication that he had been given from the
Speaker 2: same doctor and he went to get the same medication
Speaker 2: because he assumed it would be identical. And she had
Speaker 2: been given ibuprofen, and he had been given codeine because
Speaker 2: obviously that's all she needed. Sure, same exact procedure, and
Speaker 2: her husband was given codeine and she was just given ibuprofen,
Speaker 2: which you know at the end of the day, if
Speaker 2: you don't understand those two things, codeine's a lot, a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot stronger than just ibuprofene, which you can get
Speaker 2: a culs. Isn't that wild?
Speaker 4: That is pretty wild, I would say, even slightly insulting
Speaker 4: to the guy you how to do this?
Speaker 2: No, actually, I just want all women to be given
Speaker 2: codine if I think that that pain is going to
Speaker 2: be too much and be like, oh, women won't need it,
Speaker 2: like they've gone through worse. Yeah, they go through worse
Speaker 2: every day. You just need a ibuprofen. All right, let's move.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about the PBS. So we mentioned
Speaker 2: earlier about the need for new forms of pills to
Speaker 2: be included on the PBS, right well, Australian Medical Association
Speaker 2: Vice President doctor Danielle McCullum agreed and said that the
Speaker 2: Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which recommends items for the PBS,
Speaker 2: needs to receive applications from pharmaceutical companies before their products
Speaker 2: could be listed. She said quote that the Advisory Committee
Speaker 2: can't compel manufacturers to request listing, which has been a
Speaker 2: bit of a challenge, but we welcome more contraceptive medications
Speaker 2: on the PBS. So the Inquiry is going to hand
Speaker 2: down its final report in May, which is quite soon,
Speaker 2: and I'm probably gonna want to update you guys on
Speaker 2: what the outcome of that is, just because I think
Speaker 2: it's really important for our community. But isn't it wild
Speaker 2: that we're talking about basic human rights here. We're having
Speaker 2: this conversation about equal access and it not being financially crippling,
Speaker 2: and it actually just goes back to commercialism, like the
Speaker 2: company has to apply to be on the PBS, and
Speaker 2: the company's like, ah, well that doesn't really matter, like
Speaker 2: food cares, We're still selling the product. Because in my head,
Speaker 2: and as I said before, I have never applied through
Speaker 2: a product to be listed on the PBS. But what
Speaker 2: I'm going to assume is that if something goes on
Speaker 2: the PBS. It becomes government subsidized. It doesn't change the
Speaker 2: levels of what the company make it the end of
Speaker 2: the day. What it would do, though, is subsidize it,
Speaker 2: which you would think is an incentive to more people
Speaker 2: buying it. Yes, so they're like, weird, yeahs, we like
Speaker 2: the best pill. Everybody is going to pay for it
Speaker 2: regardless because people like you and I, if you've had
Speaker 2: you know, not so great experiences on other ones, You're like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I don't care. It costs me, you know,
Speaker 2: seventy eight bars. I'm just going to pay it because
Speaker 2: my health is worth that. And I agree that that's
Speaker 2: not fair.
Speaker 4: It's not fair. It's not fair. That actually kind of
Speaker 4: takes me down another path. I just want to talk
Speaker 4: about financial privileged rusic in. It depends what you can afford.
Speaker 4: But also the cost of your method is the I
Speaker 4: think you have some general costs to share with us.
Speaker 4: I can see it over there, and I'm dying to know.
Speaker 2: Have a little chart of a little chart, guys, I
Speaker 2: have a graph is polograph. I would call that a table. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's from a spreadsheet obviously, guys, I don't know what
Speaker 2: you expected from me, but it was definitely a spreadsheet,
Speaker 2: so I have some costs to go through, and I
Speaker 2: think it's just interesting. I'm not going to read every
Speaker 2: single one of them, but the emergency contraceptive pill, so
Speaker 2: that's like the morning after pill or Plan B if
Speaker 2: you're American. I learned that recently on TikTok and I
Speaker 2: was like, plan B, what was Plan A? Like, you
Speaker 2: didn't implement Plan A, so we went for Plan B directly. Anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm curious Pella with a Medicare card only it can
Speaker 2: be up to fifty bucks. And that is a pill
Speaker 2: that you can take if you have had unprotected sexual
Speaker 2: intercourse and you want to prevent a pregnancy. That doesn't
Speaker 2: do anything for SDIS or STDs, not a thing. It's
Speaker 2: just to prevent pregnancy. Same with oral contraceptive pills. So
Speaker 2: obviously these things only prevent pregnancy. They're not protecting you.
Speaker 2: As we said at the top of the episode, they're
Speaker 2: not protecting you from SDIS and STDs, which is actually
Speaker 2: really important to protect yourself against if you're in a
Speaker 2: new relationship, or if you're in a relationship where you know,
Speaker 2: maybe you're both having a little bit of fun outside
Speaker 2: that relationship. But the oral contractive pill with a healthcare
Speaker 2: card and a Medicare card is going to cost you
Speaker 2: around six dollars forty if it's listed on the PBS,
Speaker 2: but with a Medicare card only, it's ten to thirty
Speaker 2: five dollars. But beck you're going to need to go
Speaker 2: to the doctor to get that, and a doctor's appointment
Speaker 2: can go anywhere from zero dollars if it's bog billed,
Speaker 2: but like basically no one's bog billing anymore, all the
Speaker 2: way up to one hundred and fifteen dollars per consultation.
Speaker 2: And you're going to need to do that every three
Speaker 2: months because you're going to get a three month script.
Speaker 2: So that's more than four hundred dollars a year in
Speaker 2: doctor's appointments if you don't have a healthcare card, because
Speaker 2: I know that a lot of places are going to
Speaker 2: steal bulk bill for people still with a healthcare card.
Speaker 2: But again, accessibility of that is becoming lower, And like,
Speaker 2: what time do you have to go and visit the doctor? Yes,
Speaker 2: its like it's so wild, it's wild. And do you
Speaker 2: know what's even more wild is the fact that weekend
Speaker 2: appointments when I'm a assuming most people who have a
Speaker 2: nine to five Monday to Friday job, they're more expensive.
Speaker 2: My doctor's clinic charges a Saturday appointment fee, and it's
Speaker 2: much more than just a week day fee. But also
Speaker 2: I can't get to the doctor, you know, in their
Speaker 2: morning sessions because they start at eight. If I have
Speaker 2: an eight o'clock appointment at the doctor, you just know
Speaker 2: that that's not going to happen till like at least
Speaker 2: eight thirty nine, and then I'm going to be late
Speaker 2: to work. That implects my job. If I'm being paid hourly,
Speaker 2: are we going to take into consideration the hour of
Speaker 2: pay that I'm not getting for that morning. On the
Speaker 2: flip side, if I want to do it after hours,
Speaker 2: most doctors clinics don't do late night appointments every day
Speaker 2: of the week. Like, let's then throw in the fact
Speaker 2: that you might have kids a need caring. It just
Speaker 2: there's so much to it that blows my mind. Moving
Speaker 2: on though, hormonal iud so the Marina with a healthcare
Speaker 2: card and a Medicare card is going to cost you
Speaker 2: around six dollars forty. With the Medicare only card, it's
Speaker 2: around thirty nine dollars fifty and to get doctor's visit.
Speaker 2: It's going to cost anywhere between zero and two hundred
Speaker 2: dollars to be inserted, but that is not taking into
Speaker 2: consideration any anethetist fees. So as someone who had a
Speaker 2: marina put in under anesthetic and I also had private healthcare,
Speaker 2: I was really lucky. But what I had to do
Speaker 2: was pay the gap. So I was out probably three
Speaker 2: or four hundred dollars from memory with that just to
Speaker 2: have it each aspished. So yes, it was thirty nine
Speaker 2: dollars fifty, but it will depend on your insertion method.
Speaker 2: And before I was slamming the insertion method of having
Speaker 2: it done in the clinic, and I'm not sure how
Speaker 2: much I would recommend that. I mean, they are going
Speaker 2: to be and like, please do not get in my
Speaker 2: DMS and message me and be like Victory, I had
Speaker 2: to put in and I was fine in clinic. Like
Speaker 2: I get that there are going to be people who
Speaker 2: have had a brilliant experience and a seamless like insertion
Speaker 2: of it, right, and you're going to have this perfect
Speaker 2: experience and you're going to look at my experience and
Speaker 2: be like that's wild, Victoria. I don't know why you're
Speaker 2: promoting that. But the experience with my girlfriends that I
Speaker 2: have anecdotally had is that everyone who has put it
Speaker 2: in in clinic has had a negative experience. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying that that's everybody's experience. I'm just talking to my
Speaker 2: own experience and how traumatic I think that is and
Speaker 2: the fact that I got to completely circumvent that by
Speaker 2: choosing just to go to sleep. I don't know how
Speaker 2: my body reacted while I was under anesthetic. I don't
Speaker 2: need to know, Yes, I don't need to know, But
Speaker 2: what I know is that I got appropriate pain relief
Speaker 2: and it was put in while I was under right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I think that that is something that should be
Speaker 2: more accessible. And obviously I got to go down the
Speaker 2: I guess claiming it on private healthcare. But if you
Speaker 2: don't have that, it might be an out of product,
Speaker 2: it might be an out of pocket anesthetic cost. It
Speaker 2: depends on whether you go to, you know, a general
Speaker 2: hospital and have it put in, or if you go
Speaker 2: to a fertility control clinic, which I honestly would recommend
Speaker 2: going to. They are lovely people and they do this
Speaker 2: every day. Like at the end of the day, if
Speaker 2: I'm going to have a marina put in. Do I
Speaker 2: want it put in by my GP who just did
Speaker 2: the training one time and puts it in the clinic
Speaker 2: and doesn't really do them maybe does a couple of year,
Speaker 2: Or do I want to go to a fertility control
Speaker 2: clinic where they do that literally every single day and
Speaker 2: they're probably like brilliant at the process. It's not to
Speaker 2: say that GP's bad. They're probably really good. And you
Speaker 2: know what, there are probably a lot of GPS out
Speaker 2: there floating around who have become like known for really
Speaker 2: good insertions of this thing. But from my experience, again,
Speaker 2: every time I tried to find someone, they would be like,
Speaker 2: oh no, they don't do that. It was an even
Speaker 2: bigger nightmare back when I wanted to get it taken out.
Speaker 2: Oh I haven't even talked about that yet exactly, because like,
Speaker 2: what goes in must come out at some point mm
Speaker 2: hmm Newton's laurel as they said, Yeah, what goes up
Speaker 2: must come down. But when I wanted to get it
Speaker 2: taken out, that was a circus and a half and
Speaker 2: I called a whole heap of GPS. And from my understanding,
Speaker 2: all you had to do was yank the cord Ah no,
Speaker 2: oh no, no, no, we won't go into that story
Speaker 2: because it is a relatively traumatic story. But it definitely
Speaker 2: cost me close to one thousand dollars to have that removed,
Speaker 2: so I think you need to understand I guess that
Speaker 2: side of cost as well. Obviously, I'm I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm being relatively ranty today, but it's because I care.
Speaker 2: I promise, Yeah, that's okay. Copper, IUD same circumstance, but
Speaker 2: that's going to be more expensive, so it's not going
Speaker 2: to be able to be claimed under PBS. With a
Speaker 2: healthcare card doesn't count, but with a Medicare card it
Speaker 2: could be between seventy and one hundred and twenty dollars,
Speaker 2: and then it could cost you up to three hundred
Speaker 2: dollars according to my graph to get it inserted lasts
Speaker 2: for ten years though ten year ten days. But again
Speaker 2: I would probably recommend looking at other insertion methods to
Speaker 2: make sure that you're okay. The contraceptive implant slash rod right,
Speaker 2: this is the one that I said, sent me absolutely
Speaker 2: Batty did that for me. I have so many girlfriends
Speaker 2: who have had I think three, four, even five rods.
Speaker 2: They love it. They thrive on it. It is the
Speaker 2: perfect thing for them, and it works really well with
Speaker 2: a healthcare card. Around six dollars forty it's pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's around six I sporting with a Medicare card only
Speaker 2: thirty seven bucks. Okay, And this one you don't need
Speaker 2: to be put to sleep for because they can just
Speaker 2: like numb your arm and put it in. It could
Speaker 2: be up to one hundred and fifteen dollars in the
Speaker 2: consult fee because most gps have lack an area at
Speaker 2: their consultation clinic that they can put in. And that
Speaker 2: lasts three years. That's pretty heavy. That's a nice, happy meeting.
Speaker 2: That's pretty good. Debra Vira is a contraceptive injection, which
Speaker 2: I think is really interesting. I've never had this before,
Speaker 2: but it's around six dollars forty or fifteen bucks with
Speaker 2: just a Medicare card. You do need a doctor's consultation,
Speaker 2: so let's call that around one hundred and fifteen dollars.
Speaker 2: And you're going to need two of these apparently according
Speaker 2: to this list, and that lasts three months, so just
Speaker 2: like the pill, you're going to have to return to
Speaker 2: the doctor for that shot every three months. Again, access
Speaker 2: the vaginal ring. I think, do you remember hearing about this?
Speaker 2: I remember hearing about this when I was much younger thanuverring.
Speaker 2: It sounds familiar. It's like, basically, I think, think it's
Speaker 2: made of like medical grade silicon and you basically have
Speaker 2: this ring. That's what would you say about the size
Speaker 2: of my fingers? Ah? I went around, How would you
Speaker 2: explain to explain that, Oh, it's a conference of my okay, notion?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Anyway, that silly can ring gets inserted once a month
Speaker 2: into your vagina and stays in your vagina, okay, And
Speaker 2: that costs around thirty dollars, and then you pull it
Speaker 2: out after I think it's like twenty five days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this must have some benefits to it, because surely
Speaker 4: no one's opting for this once a month.
Speaker 2: To do this, well, you put it in once a
Speaker 2: month and then there was silicon rings stays in your
Speaker 2: vagina for the entire month. But it's expensive, No, it's
Speaker 2: not cheap. It's around thirty dollars to have it done,
Speaker 2: and you need to change that every three weeks. And
Speaker 2: you can get it on a prescription, so you could
Speaker 2: probably get it the same way you get the pill.
Speaker 2: And like pick up three of them or whatever. There's Look,
Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor, and I'm not pretending to be
Speaker 2: a doctor. I'm just talking about the process. I've said
Speaker 2: a million times, please go talk to your doctor about this.
Speaker 2: Don't just talk to your friends like you're just so important.
Speaker 2: But from my understanding, like the ring has the hormones
Speaker 2: in the silicon and they seep out, and the way
Speaker 2: that that works is actually that it's closer to your uterus,
Speaker 2: so you need less of the hormone than you would
Speaker 2: if you took it orally. So a couple of my
Speaker 2: girlfriends have used this. I just find the concept of
Speaker 2: having something hidden up there for a month. Yeah to me,
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, thank you. So what you poppet in yourself? Yeap?
Speaker 2: You poppet in yourself? Yeah? Yeah, and then you leave
Speaker 2: it in there.
Speaker 4: I would just never ever ever sleep with anyone ever
Speaker 4: again instead of doing that.
Speaker 2: But also that's okay for you too. I reckon there
Speaker 2: are going to be a heav girls that slide into
Speaker 2: our dms and they're like, I love my new ring,
Speaker 2: like the feeling it would ever happened to me, and
Speaker 2: like I'm assuming, like just assuming here you can't feel it? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's more than a tampon. And if a tampon's inserted properly,
Speaker 2: like you can't feel that are true? Yeah, maybe it's
Speaker 2: just like a thing totally. Actually, I've got a lot
Speaker 2: of questions.
Speaker 4: Maybe you slide into our DMS because I'm very curious
Speaker 4: to know what it feels like, what the whole process is, Like.
Speaker 2: This is too far? Please? What happens if you have sex? Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Like little? Is it like paying coits a little that
Speaker 2: game where you throw the rings and then it gets
Speaker 2: stuck on the pole, you.
Speaker 4: Know, Like I feel like I'm going to take it
Speaker 4: too fast.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about like more barrier methods because obviously those
Speaker 2: are oral contraceptive methods that only protect against pregnancy. Right.
Speaker 2: The last one under contraception that you can get from
Speaker 2: your gp BECK is called a diaphragm, and a diaphragm
Speaker 2: is basically a barrier method of birth control. And the
Speaker 2: plan with that one is it's actually like kind of
Speaker 2: like it looks like a condom that hasn't been unrolled,
Speaker 2: and it's a little bit bigger, and it basically gets
Speaker 2: placed over your cervix with sperm side before sex, which
Speaker 2: is probably less common, but yeah, you place it in
Speaker 2: before you have sex, and then it's left in place
Speaker 2: for at least six hours after sex to basically stop
Speaker 2: the spam getting up your cervix and creating a pregnancy.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: They do recommend fitting by a health care provider, which
Speaker 2: I think is really interesting because it's like basically a
Speaker 2: barrier protection. But that's expensive. It's between seventy and ninety
Speaker 2: dollars and then obviously again that one hundred and fifteen
Speaker 2: dollars for a consultation. So I find that wild. You
Speaker 2: know what I find more wild though, is when I
Speaker 2: googled it as well, the one year failure rates around
Speaker 2: twelve percent with typical use, Like twelve I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't know what you mean. Like condoms are like ninety
Speaker 2: nine point ninety five percent effective. Rah, that's like so
Speaker 2: much less for such a cost. Like understand, no, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to go and get that one. If you
Speaker 2: use that, though, please slide into our DMS. We want
Speaker 2: to hear about it and why you choose that over
Speaker 2: the other contraceptive like options throughout there. Now, that's what
Speaker 2: I want to know. Yeah, Like it's not do you
Speaker 2: use it? That might work, Like, surely it can't be. Oh,
Speaker 2: that was the only method available to me because it's
Speaker 2: so niche. It does feel a quite niche. But then
Speaker 2: I guess moving more into barrier methods. Internal female condoms
Speaker 2: are between three and ten dollars each and their single use.
Speaker 2: They're much more expensive than external male condoms, which are
Speaker 2: you know, between zero dollars because lots of them are
Speaker 2: free to five dollars for multiple and obviously you can
Speaker 2: buy lots and lots of different kinds. They might even
Speaker 2: be on sale at coals you don't know, might be
Speaker 2: in love. I might check it out. And then oral
Speaker 2: and dental dams they're not a method of birth control.
Speaker 2: They only protect from contracting sdis during oral, vaginal or
Speaker 2: anal sex. They're around three dollars each, so I feel like,
Speaker 2: given their single use, that's actually relatively expensive. Oh, Like
Speaker 2: it adds up, right, I see, like every single time,
Speaker 2: and I mean every pill. I'm married, so like, huh,
Speaker 2: it's going to be real cheap for me. But like
Speaker 2: you know, if you're not married and you have a
Speaker 2: very active sex life, that's going to add up real quick.
Speaker 2: It's like getting coffees every day you know, like that
Speaker 2: true adds up? True? Well, coffee back in the day, Yeah,
Speaker 2: coffee back is a day. Yeah, Like it's not three
Speaker 2: dollars anymore. Five dollars fifty for an oat laste the
Speaker 2: other day, get this back one dollar extra for oatmelk. Well,
Speaker 2: now they're taking the piss a little bit, you know,
Speaker 2: charge me more to save the world. What Well, when
Speaker 2: you put it like that, Okay, exactly exactly, I'll pay
Speaker 2: for it. But I'm not happy about it. I'm just
Speaker 2: not happy about it. But I think it's interesting going
Speaker 2: through all of those, right totally. And I think it's
Speaker 2: just interesting just going through all of those and the
Speaker 2: costs and what they look like and what the actual
Speaker 2: implementation might be. And I mean back to what we're
Speaker 2: talking about before. I don't know how many times I
Speaker 2: can reiterate this. Please go talk to your doctor about this,
Speaker 2: because we're not doctors. We're just talking about the costs
Speaker 2: of these things. And these things work very differently for
Speaker 2: very different people. And to be honest, there might be
Speaker 2: a few types of contraception that you've heard about today
Speaker 2: that you're like, fat, I didn't know that existed. Like,
Speaker 2: how many people are going to be listening to this
Speaker 2: and they're like a ring that you put in your
Speaker 2: vagina for a whole month. What Like that's crazy to
Speaker 2: some people. And that's cool that we're learning together, But
Speaker 2: the best person to learn from is actually going to
Speaker 2: be your GP GPP baby fertility specialists that can help
Speaker 2: you through these processes and actually find what the right
Speaker 2: fit for you is, because, as we've said before, the
Speaker 2: right fit for me is not the right fit for you,
Speaker 2: and the right fit for Beck is not the right
Speaker 2: fit for me. Like different, everybody is different now totally
Speaker 2: what makes our community so cool? Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 4: I think that we are ending in on a really
Speaker 4: good note. But a few takeaways from today. My one
Speaker 4: that I'm most scared of right now, and I keep
Speaker 4: hearing this, many clinics aren't bulk billing anymore.
Speaker 2: Why? When? How? What the hell does that mean? There's
Speaker 2: not a lot I can stay on that, but essentially,
Speaker 2: I think it's just the rising cost of living. And
Speaker 2: I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not here.
Speaker 2: I think some people are going to cut me down
Speaker 2: for this. But doctors have to put food on their
Speaker 2: tables too. They still have to pay rent of their clinics.
Speaker 2: They have to pay their nurses, they have to pay
Speaker 2: their admin staff, They have mouths to feed and bills
Speaker 2: to pay, and I think that it's just become a
Speaker 2: financial pressure where they just don't have an option, like
Speaker 2: they need to know increase how much they're being paid,
Speaker 2: and our government isn't subsidizing our health care enough for
Speaker 2: them to not do that, because we all know that.
Speaker 2: I think at the crux of it, if you sat
Speaker 2: a doctor down and said why did you become a doctor,
Speaker 2: It's not because I wanted to get rich. There are
Speaker 2: way easier ways to get rich than becoming a doctor.
Speaker 2: They become a doctor because they care about people and
Speaker 2: want to help, and usually that is the situation. So
Speaker 2: I genuinely feel like if a doctor is charging, it's
Speaker 2: probably because they have to not feel like, oh, do
Speaker 2: you know what I really want to do. I don't
Speaker 2: want people to be able to access really financially responsible
Speaker 2: health care like they're not doing that. We know they're
Speaker 2: not doing that. I think that the government needs to
Speaker 2: stay been a bit more than they have been before
Speaker 2: and actually subsidized it a bit more, because you know,
Speaker 2: you look at the rising cost of living and it's
Speaker 2: like up to seven percent. What has the government increased
Speaker 2: how much that they're subsidizing healthcare by seven percent? No,
Speaker 2: they haven't, but things are costing more than seven percent.
Speaker 2: I guarantee admin staff in the doctor's surgeries are going,
Speaker 2: oh well, I'd like a raise because the rising cost
Speaker 2: of living exists, Yes, like it makes sense. We know,
Speaker 2: you know, landlords are charging more now because they're trying
Speaker 2: to cover their mortgages, which is an entirely other conversation.
Speaker 2: But people own clinics and they're probably increasing the rent
Speaker 2: on the clinic. Like, there's just a lot of things
Speaker 2: to be taken into consideration. And I can almost guarantee
Speaker 2: that clinics aren't not bulk filling anymore because they want
Speaker 2: to screw us over sure. Okay, that does that make sense?
Speaker 2: That makes sense. It makes me feel bit better actually.
Speaker 4: And the last point that I think I'm going to
Speaker 4: take away from this, and I feel like everyone should,
Speaker 4: is that the cost that we're talking about today is
Speaker 4: mainly for metropolitan people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's true.
Speaker 4: We're not really kind of discussing what the cost is
Speaker 4: for rural and regional people that you know, might not
Speaker 4: have the same accessibility as we do, I can imagine
Speaker 4: being quite difficult.
Speaker 2: And it's a privilege. Like as I said before, I
Speaker 2: got to go down to the fertility clinic and you know,
Speaker 2: decide to have my marina inserted there. What if you're
Speaker 2: in a rural town and you only have the GP
Speaker 2: and that GPS not trained in that type of contraception
Speaker 2: that you want. Not only do you not have access
Speaker 2: to that, but you might also be a bit wary
Speaker 2: of getting that because you're not going to have the
Speaker 2: support close to you if that's not the right contraceptive
Speaker 2: method and you need to have it taken out. So
Speaker 2: I think there's, yeah, there's a lot of privilege when
Speaker 2: talking about contraception. And this conversation shouldn't stop here, which
Speaker 2: is why we have our Facebook group so we can
Speaker 2: continue the conversations and continue to I guess hear your
Speaker 2: opinions and you know, hear what our community is going through,
Speaker 2: so the conversation will continue over there. But I just
Speaker 2: think it's this has been such a small snippet of
Speaker 2: the issue that we're going through, and I guess the
Speaker 2: crux of this episode wasn't necessarily to talk about accessibility,
Speaker 2: even though we are shedding lash on it right now.
Speaker 2: It's really to talk about the cost of it and
Speaker 2: what that looks like, and that contraception I think is
Speaker 2: important to talk about. And I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 2: you thought we were going to talk about who should
Speaker 2: be paying for it. We covered that on that Friday
Speaker 2: Drinks episode. But what is it actually at the depths
Speaker 2: of it. What's it going to cost me to get
Speaker 2: on the pill? What's it going to cost me to
Speaker 2: buy cornum?
Speaker 4: Totally?
Speaker 2: I love it. Let's leave it at that, I reckon.
Speaker 2: Let's get on your tea. Let's go get another tea.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we love you, has a good weekend.
Speaker 2: We will see you guys on Friday. Bye, guys.
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