Intro | An Overview | Quality | Prescription Variety | Cost | Customer Service | Verdict
Dealing with pharmacies to try to handle birth control pills can make you feel like you’re losing control. Plus, the cost of contraceptives without insurance is inaccessible for most women.
The Pill Club is an online service that seeks to make access to birth control easier and more effective for women. Their licensed team of medical professionals and pharmacists make it easy to provide consultations and medicinal care so you can have more peace of mind.
But does The Pill Club hold up to its promises and truly deliver, or is this a club that you’re better off never becoming a member of? Let’s take a look at everything you need to know in this in-depth review.
Who Is The Pill Club?
Birth control pills are 91% to 99% effective, making medicinal contraceptives a popular form of contraception for many women. While most insurance plans can cover most of the costs associated, the price of birth control is high. Not to mention, it can be hard to find the right doctor that will be willing to prescribe you with the right medication.
The Pill Club seeks to break down the barriers associated with accessing birth control. It is a female-founded online platform that matches you with licensed providers who can prescribe you a preferred form of contraceptive.
You can subscribe to the program to receive hormonal birth control pills on a monthly or tri-monthly basis, depending on your needs. And you can pay for the medications with a credit card if you don’t have insurance.
Pill Club also seeks to educate about patients overall, so once you become a member, you have unlimited text access to providers to ask any questions that might be bogging you down in relation to your reproductive health.
The Pill Club Reviews: An Overview
The Pill Club sounds pretty awesome on paper. And there are a ton of benefits that this service is able to offer to its valued members.
Pros:
- Pills are discreetly delivered straight to you. This is highly convenient, and it can save you a trip to the pharmacy.
- Pill Club’s network of health professionals is vast. It’s not just pharmacists – there are medical professionals and client care teams to help you at every step.
- If you already have a prescription elsewhere, you can carry it over once you subscribe to the Pill Club.
- You don’t need to make an appointment to contact doctors and nurses via phone call or text.
- Their brand is fun and supportive. You’ll get some free trials of beauty products, sweets, or stickers whenever you receive your pills.
As great as the Pill Club might be, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of before you become a member.
Cons:
- They mainly offer only birth control pills, with the exception of a birth control ring. If you’re looking for other contraceptives, you may need to look elsewhere.
- While emergency contraceptives are available, they are only sent with your next birth control delivery rather than immediately. This sort of defeats the purpose.
- Credit card users need to pay a yearly subscription fee of $15, as well as an additional fee per birth control pack.
- In general, it seems to take a little longer to receive prescriptions compared to similar services.
That’s a lot of information to unpack, so let’s break everything down so you can fully understand the benefits and drawbacks of this women’s healthcare service.
Quality
Pill Club’s brand is warm, modern, and welcoming. This makes the website easy to navigate, and filling out the initial health profile took us just a few minutes.
We were contacted within the same day about our results, and our healthcare provider was supportive and understanding as we worked to try to pick a birth control pill that was most accessible for us.
When we received our birth control pills, we were delighted to find some fun, free stickers and a bag of sweets within the same box. No one is necessarily excited to receive birth control pills, but this small gesture was enough to make us smile when we opened up the box.
With that said, the pills took over a week to actually make it to us, which was a bit longer than we had expected. Although we signed up for the three-month refills based on what our insurance allowed, it still felt like a long time to begin our initial treatment. This can definitely be a problem if you’re looking for emergency contraceptives, especially since they’ll only ship with your next order of birth control.
Also, we used the text service to chat with a healthcare provider to answer some questions about our medication. They were highly responsive and helpful, and it was able to give us some peace of mind about some of the concerns we had about starting a new form of birth control.
Prescription Variety
The Pill Club offers over 120 FDA-approved birth control brands, which is more variety than many competitors. This is helpful for many reasons. For one, it can allow you to become a Pill Club subscription member and still maintain your original birth control if you’re switching over from a traditional pharmacy.
But on top of that, it gives you plenty of options in case you are not happy with the medication that you were originally prescribed. And your Pill Club medical professional will work with you to switch medications and offer some suggestions.
A downfall, though, is that the only contraceptives that the Pill Club offers are in pill form. With the exception of Annovera, a birth control ring, you can only have access to pills when searching for your preferred contraception method.
We should note that the Pill Club offers more than just birth control. They also make menstrual products, like pads or tampons, as well as prescription acne treatment. Additionally, they make their own condoms that are packed with fun jokes on the outside. It helps to fight back against the stigma and “taboo” nature of discussing sexual and reproductive health.
Cost
The Pill Club allows users to get monthly or tri-monthly birth control deliveries through their insurance or credit card.
The Pill Club accepts most major insurance, and in most circumstances, you’ll pay $0 for generic contraceptives and birth control, as well as free delivery and a free consultation.
If you use your credit card, you can expect to pay around $6.99 per pack for a one-year supply. For a three-month supply, this price rises to $10.99 a pack. Additionally, you need to pay a yearly $15 fee for consultation and prescription.
If you’re just looking to get the medication, you may be able to find it cheaper from other resources.
While this fee for credit card users seems unfair, especially if they need to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, it’s still lower than many competitors. Plus, using insurance or credit card entitles you to ongoing personalized care through their service, meaning you can text or call your provider whenever you want for no added charges.
Customer Service
Having quality customer service is important for any healthcare service, but for birth control, it can be especially necessary. Luckily, it seems like the Pill Club’s customer service team is top-notch.
This is likely due to the fact that the company has a dedicated patient care team to help address inconsistencies or concerns related to your birth control, shipping, or insurance billing.
Not only was our experience with the care team warm and welcoming, but they also provided us with some great resources on their blog where we could read up and get some more information about our questions.
Who Is The Pill Club For?
The Pill Club is a birth control provider that is likely a good option for a number of women who are in search of affordable birth control pills that are auto-filled on their own terms. With low prices without insurance, and even lower costs with insurance, it’s a good budget-friendly choice that also helps reduce the stigma surrounding sexual and hormonal health.
Also, if you’re looking to get personalized care over a period of time, Pill Club’s access to texts and calls with providers sets them above other similar services. Plus, the pills are delivered discreetly and directly to your door, which makes it a safer alternative as opposed to entering a physical pharmacy or going to a physical doctor.
With that said, since the variety of contraceptives is fairly limited to only pills, this may not be an option if you’re looking to get other forms of contraception. Also, it may not be a time-effective solution for emergency contraception if you need a fast solution, as shipping times can vary tremendously.
Other Birth Control and Women’s Health Options
The Pill Club: In Review
The Pill Club is a birth control provider that seeks to remove the traditional barriers between women and contraceptives. Through their online service, you can have medications shipped directly to your door on an auto-fill basis, as well as gain unlimited access to call or text medical professionals regarding your reproductive health.
The Pill Club is a high-quality provider with a fun, welcoming layout that helps to end the stigma surrounding women’s health. Its major drawbacks are mainly regarding shipping times and a lack of variety in contraception methods.
Overall, The Pill Club is an excellent resource for women with or without insurance who are looking to receive their preferred brand of birth control on a regular basis. Despite a lack of variety and problems with shipping, especially for those who need emergency contraceptives, the friendly customer service team and freebies included with each delivery are enough to set it apart from similar services.
References and Sources:
How effective is contraception at preventing pregnancy? | NHS.
Emergency Contraception | Planned Parenthood
Kate Byrd, PharmD, is a highly accomplished Medical Writer with a strong background in pharmacy and an unwavering commitment to producing accurate, informative content. After earning her Doctor of Pharmacy degree, Kate embarked on her career as a Medical Writer, where she has since gained valuable experience in developing evidence-based content that translates complex medical information into easy-to-understand articles. We are thrilled to announce that Kate is now bringing her expertise and dedication to the medical writing team at Pharmacists.org. Her passion for empowering readers with reliable and accessible health information aligns perfectly with our mission, making her a valuable addition to our team.
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