Student Informs of Healthcare Options

To the Editors:

With so many resources around campus for sexual health issues, such as Student Health and the SIC, it should be easy for a student who is concerned that she might be pregnant to seek help and get it. Not to mention the informational stickers plastered in all the bathrooms advocating their services and ingraining the number 1-888-Not2late in our heads. However this student is about fed up with the disorganization of Student Health, and instead wants to alert other women who are in the same boat about Family Planning Services, located in Elyria and conveniently, on Wednesday nights, in our very own Student Health building.
I called Student Health for two reasons. One, they still hadn’t called me back regarding blood tests they ran on me while I was sick, a week after they said they would call, and two, I had strong reasons to think I may need emergency contraception. Unfortunately, I waited to call until the morning of the third day after unsafe sex — and emergency contraception must be taken within 72 hours. I still had some time, but not much. The response I got was that they still had no information on my blood tests, and that they were short-staffed and had no time to see me to give me the emergency contraception. “Just try to relax,” the nurse suggested.
The call was so discouraging that I almost gave up and decided to wait the 10 days until my next period, but at the urging of a friend I called that 1-888-Not2late (catchy, isn’t it?). I got the number for Family Planning Services, who when I called gave me an appointment for that evening and told me they’d take care of me.
This is what women’s healthcare should be like. Comfortable, accessible, and best of all, free. Within 10 minutes I was sitting in an office explaining my situation to a nurse, a sheet about “Plan B,” the contraceptive, in my hand. She was wonderful — she answered my questions, listened to my doubts, and let me decide on my own that yes, I wanted Plan B. Moments later I had the small pill pack and new birth control. When I inquired about the cost she smiled widely and said, “It’s absolutely free.”
I am so relieved I didn’t give up after Student Health, though I could see how it would be easy to. What if I had given up then, and in 10 days it turned out I DID very much have something to worry about? I would have felt really stupid for not acting while I could. I wish that they had at least given me some guidance as to where else I might seek help, since they were none. Know your options — they are out there. For Family Planning Services (which offers all kinds of other women’s health services you might want to check out, too) call 440-322-7526.

–Anonymously submitted