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How Much Does Birth Control Cost?

August 27, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Method	Effectiveness	Cost Per Year
Birth Control Pills	95 percent	$160 to $600
Birth Control Patch	95 percent	$160 to $600
Cervical Cap	77 to 83 percent	$35 to $60
Condoms	85 percent	$150
Diaphragm	85 percent	$60
Fertility-Awareness	75 to 88 percent	Free
IUDs	99 percent	$100 (varies)
Shot (Depo-Provera)	99 percent	$220 to $460
Sterilization	99 percent	$30 to $200 (varies)
Vaginal Ring (NuvaRing)	95 percent	$160 to $600
Vaginal Sponge	68 to 84 percent	$500
Abstinence	100 percent	Free

See “The Real Cost of Birth Control”

Sources: FDA, Planned Parenthood, the American Pregnancy Association, and the author’s calculations and estimates

Tags:: personal finance

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I just paid over $80 for a refill on my ortho evra patches, and the pharmacy tech told me my insurance covered $9 of it. This means a month of patches now cost more than $90.
When I initially began using ortho evra my co-pay was about $20. That was in 2005. The price continued to climb annually till hitting close to $60 and now it seems as if the price is climbing almost monthly.
What's going on? My insurance plan has remained the same and continues to only pay a small amt of the cost but $9 is actually the largest amt it's ever paid for my birth control.
Are these large increases happening with the other birth controls as well?
Oh and the reason I haven't switched methods is that the patch is the only one I have success with. Got pregnant on the pill, the depo made me insane and a friend got an infection in cervix from mirena so I'm scared of it.

Laura of TN 4:41PM February 09, 2012

I used to pay $18 for the patch now they are charging me $70 a pack thats a total of $ 840.00 per year not including the exams they make every 3 months :/ a lot of institutions talk about preventing teen pregnancy but with this high prices ???

stephanie of NJ 9:51AM March 26, 2011

@David-
Withdrawal is not a reliable form of birth control. Furthermore, it's downright disgusting that you would even begin to think that having sex without a condom is acceptable. Save me the garbage of "BUT CONDOMS DON'T FEEL GOOD!" You know what else doesn't feel good? Herpes. Gonorrhea. HIV. Spawning a child you can't take care of. I'm shocked and appalled that any woman would agree to have sex with you based on your promise of "I'll pull out, I've never had a problem before!" To each their own.
But continue with your ignorant ravings of an obviously well-qualified individual. You simply MUST know what you're talking about because you quoted "statistics." Nothing I can say will change your mind, so I'll save my energy and devote it elsewhere.

Grossed-Out of GA 11:03AM September 07, 2010

How Much Does Birth Control Cost?

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