Reasons for being prescribed Lo Loestrin FE

[abalone99.livejournal.com]

I'm fighting my urge to get really upset and angry at the medical community and America's health system right now. I have a somewhat unreasonable (to me) fear and mistrust of doctors and I wanted to see if you lovely superstars could offer some possible insights into why my doctor might have prescribed me something before I questions my doctor's motives. The story:

I went to the OBGYN for the first time in about 5 years (see above paragraph re: fear of doctors for more info), was found to be in excellent health, tested negative for STD's, and pretty much told her my sole reason for wanting to visit was because I wanted to be put on a birth control that I could use to skip my periods and that would improve my skin a bit. I am also a smoker (about 3 a day on average) which I told her. She told me a) ALL hormonal birth control improves your skin (or has the potential to do so) and that the "improves your skin" claim was mostly a marketing scam. She also said she was going to have me try and gave me a free 3 month sample all nicely packaged in a little carrying case of Lo Loestrin FE and said to call back for a prescription if I liked it and had no problems. She said I can simply skip and throw away the non-active pills at the pills and begin my new pack. When I asked what the deal was with the brown vs. white pills she explained that the brown pills had iron in them. I asked if there was any danger in taking the brown bills just for some extra iron and she said, sure, why not. This is important to note because she apparently didn't want me to try this medication BECAUSE of the iron as she a) didn't explain that iron existed in the meds in the first place and b) seemed to not care one way or another if I took the iron pills or not. This brings me to yesterday when (after the doc and pharmacy offices bungled sending in my prescription) I go to pick up the prescription that was called in and the pharmacy only gives me one pack. There was some confusion about why I was only getting one pack and finally after a lot of talking and a lot of supervising it looks like they only had one and were expecting more to arrive. I wanted to know how much my copay was going to be for all this before I took it away and starting using it knowing it was for a 'name brand' drug for which there was no generic (the doctor having previously told me this). There was much debate (for a while they told me there was *no way* they could find out) and FINALLY I was able to find out that my COPAY for THREE MONTHS worth of birth control was going to be $150. I have excellent health insurance with relative low copays, VP, and I just about fainted. This is not doable for me. So I took the one month supply (because my insanely painful periods are about to return) for $50 and asked the pharmacist if there was a generic and where to go from here. Again, after much nerve-wracking confusion about how to get my prescription changed the pharmacist told me that there was a generic form of the SAME EXACT BC just without the iron pills. Now, VP, I am starting to get a little furious. WHY would my doctor prescribe/suggest a name brand BC over all the other generic types just because (as far as I and my, admittedly non-too 'with it,' pharmacist can tell) it has some iron pills in it that my doc didn't even seem to care if I took in the first place.

I'm a little upset that my doc my have prescribed me something just because some pharmaceutical company was pushing their drug. I know this happens in America, not sure if it's allowed in other countries, but I want to find out, before I overreact if there's ANY reason someone can think of that I'd be prescribed this particular expensive name brand drug before I question my doctor's motives. TIA, wonderful VP-ers.

Comments

[fallenfaun.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a bit touchy for me because I have so many people insist on having name brand medicine and then come back to throw a fit because the doctors wrote "no generics" and the pharmacy is charging them $200. It's sort of a double standard because you wouldn't yell at a store clerk for telling you that a designer bag costs $700 but ime it's somehow more acceptable to be rude about the cost of healthcare than it is when paying your other bills.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a generic because of cost but I do think it's important to actually ask about them if the doctor has a habit of just writing in the name brand.

[archangelbeth]

I think the rudeness is likely derived from helplessness. We can get cheaper purses, but we need our drugs -- and there's so many mixed messages about generics, and even mixed results to fuel those mixed messages. E.g., I'm happy with the generic for Valtrex, and it seems to work just as well; meanwhile, I insist on the brand name of Unithroid (levothyroxine).

(And then, of course, there are people who would yell at a store clerk for a high-priced purse! *sigh*)

Just one of those things to monitor a doctor's habits on!