For many people, taking hormonal birth control is nonnegotiable. Not only does it assist with regulating periods and preventing pregnancy, but it can also help manage cramps, reduce hormonal acne, and reduce risks of ovarian cysts.
Thanks to its 99 percent effectiveness rate (with perfect use), birth control pills are widely regarded as an efficient form of contraception. However, there are tons of brands on the market.
Meanwhile, finding an affordable doctor who will help you find the best birth control can be just as frustrating. Finding your perfect match isn’t something that can be taken likely, and that’s where Pill Club steps in.
Pill Club is a female-founded telehealth platform that can provide birth control prescriptions. The service can also deliver prescriptions on a monthly or trimonthly basis, depending on the customer’s insurance or payment plan.
Pill Club aims to streamline the process of receiving a prescription and finding the best hormonal birth control via medical, pharmacy, and patient care teams.
Pros
- Robust team of medical professionals. The service has a medical team, a pharmacy team, and a patient care team of licensed doctors, nurse practitioners, and customer service representatives.
- Delivered straight to you. You don’t have to head to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription.
- No appointments necessary. Nurses, doctors, and patient care coordinators are always a call or text away.
- Free delivery. Shipments arrive in discreet packaging, plus, you won’t have to pay extra for delivery.
- HIPAA compliant. Like other telehealth services, Pill Club complies with HIPAA regulations to protect your personal information.
- Existing prescriptions can be carried over. If you already have a birth control pill prescription, you can continue to use it with Pill Club.
- They send free samples. With every Pill Club delivery, they also send along fun stickers and free samples of sweet treats and self-care products.
Cons
- Mainly pills. With the exception of Annovera, the hormonal birth control ring that lasts for a year, every other birth control form offered is a pill.
- Your insurance may limit your delivery. Pill Club recommends signing up for deliveries every 3 months, but your insurance plan may restrict how often you’ll receive shipments.
- Emergency contraceptives are available, but will not be immediately delivered. Although the service offers emergency contraceptive and female condoms, they won’t be shipped overnight. Instead, they’ll be sent with your next birth control delivery.
- Credit card users pay an annual fee. If you don’t sign up with an insurance plan, it can cost up to $10.66 per birth control pack and $15 per year for online consultations and your prescription.
- Prescriptions may be limited. If you live in Alaska, Pill Club can’t provide you with a birth control prescription.
Pill Club is a telehealth birth control service. The online-only platform aims to provide help, choice, and education for individuals looking to get on birth control.
By signing up for the platform, people can receive a birth control prescription, find the best birth control fit for their body, and receive regular shipments straight to them.
Available in all 50 states, individuals as young as 14 years old can sign up for Pill Club. There are more than 120 brands of birth control pills available, including generic equivalents.
Pill Club tries to tailor payment options to a wide variety of people, and the service accepts both insurance and credit cards. Insurance users are privy to receiving period products for an additional fee, and anyone can opt in to get generic Plan B or female condoms with their shipment.
To sign up, you’ll first enter some basic information, followed by a medical history questionnaire, including any previous birth control use, chronic conditions, and medications.
Based on answers to the survey, Pill Club’s medical team, which consists of doctors and nurse practitioners, will recommend a birth control. There’s an option to say no, if you already prefer a specific brand or have an existing prescription.
From there, you can choose between using your insurance plan or a credit card for out-of-pocket payments.
Once you complete the health questionnaire, it’ll be sent to the medical review team for approval. They’ll reach out with any further questions or updates pending the go-ahead, which takes 5 to 7 days.
Generally, yes, with one exception when it comes to prescriptions (more on that below).
Beyond prescribing and delivering hormonal birth control, Pill Club also provides personalized reproductive care, which gives subscribers the ability to contact members of the medical and pharmacy teams via phone or text.
Using this feature, customers can discuss common side effects or request to change their birth control after the recommended 2 to 3-week adjustment period.
Shipping is offered in all 50 states, but Pill Club can only prescribe birth control in 49 states — Alaska is the exception.
If you’re an Alaskan resident and already have a prescription for a hormonal pill or the birth control ring, Pill Club can deliver it once you’ve signed up. Patients in Alaska can also receive emergency contraception and female condoms.
Birth control
Pill Club offers more than 120 birth control pills approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There’s also the hormonal birth control ring, Annovera, which lasts for a year.
Both name brands and generic equivalents are available, and types range from combination pills, which contain both estrogen and progestin, to progestin-only pills.
Emergency contraception
Pill Club also offers emergency contraception (generic Plan B) as an add-on to birth control deliveries. Emergency contraception is available whether you have insurance or not. However, it won’t be shipped out immediately. Instead, you’ll receive it with the next birth control delivery.
Customers also receive a complimentary care package with their birth control, which includes featured samples of period products, snacks, and more.
Female condoms
Female condoms (FC2) are also available. Unlike with emergency contraception, Pill Club has to check with insurance networks to see if FC2 is covered. They can be added onto your birth control shipment per request.
There are many other telehealth birth control platforms around the web, including Nurx, Lemonaid, and SimpleHealth.
In our roundup of the best online birth control pill services, we dubbed Pill Club as the best for fun extras thanks to the monthly treats found in each shipment.
Here are a few of the other options out there.
Read an in-depth comparison of the top online birth control services here.
Nurx
Nurx, one of the most popular birth control delivery services, offers other contraceptive forms besides the pill, like the ring, the patch, and the shot. Nurx also openly provides recognition to trans and non-binary folks who take birth control.
The platform is currently only available in 30 states, but shipments are sent out within 3 to 5 business days.
Nurx also offers both prescription and nonprescription emergency contraception, like Plan B and Ella, along with HIV PrEP (a daily medication that helps with combatting HIV), HPV screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Lemonaid
Lemonaid is another comprehensive telehealth service. It doesn’t solely focus on birth control prescriptions and instead matches patients with affordable healthcare professionals.
The service treats a wide variety of conditions, like anxiety, depression, and asthma.
When you sign up for Lemonaid, you’ll receive a response from the platform’s medical review team within 24 hours. Should you be approved, you’ll have to pay a flat $25 fee for a consultation. Lemonaid also has a mail-in prescription service, but the company doesn’t accept insurance and is cash-only.
SimpleHealth
SimpleHealth specializes in birth control prescriptions and ships out deliveries to people on a monthly basis. Like Pill Club, the service accepts most insurance networks, and it’s around $15 a month for those who don’t have insurance. There’s also a $20 annual fee.
SimpleHealth offers hormonal pills, the patch, or the ring. There are more than 120 generic and name-brand birth control options.
If you’re eligible to receive female condoms, you’ll automatically get them in your birth control shipments, but you can opt out if you’d like. Additionally, emergency contraception (ella) and genital herpes treatment are also available.
Pill Club may be a good option for those who have had a hard time finding a doctor in their insurance network or don’t have insurance.
Additionally, if you already have a birth control that you like and just want to receive the prescription on a regular basis, Pill Club might be a great option for you.
The platform is largely convenient for people who have regular access to the internet. If you frequently forget or don’t have time to pick up your prescription at the pharmacy, having your birth control sent directly to you is an added bonus.
Although customers can be as young as 14 years old to use Pill Club, it might not be the best alternative for people who are having their first-ever experience with birth control. The majority of the birth control offered are pills, so there isn’t an option to try other methods, like an intrauterine device (IUD), implant, or contraceptive injection.
Conversely, if you prefer using forms other than the pill, Pill Club probably isn’t ideal. The service only offers one hormonal ring, Annovera. The ring lasts a year, but it stays in the vagina for 3 weeks and is removed for 1 week each month.
Pill Club accepts most major insurance, including select Medicaid in certain states, HSAs, and FSAs. The copay will depend on the network, though birth control prescriptions are typically covered.
If a patient is part of a closed health plan, they’ll need to see a professional within that network to receive a prescription and will have to fill it at a pharmacy.
There’s also the option to pay with a credit card. The platform works closely with drug companies to offer low prices and can provide a price quote for the recommended birth control. Otherwise, credit card users will have to pay up to $10.66 per birth control pack and an annual fee of $15 for online consultation and prescriptions.
Since its inception in 2016, Pill Club has received overwhelmingly positive ratings from customers.
Patients applaud the service for timely deliveries that even stayed consistent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pill Club currently has a solid 4.6-star rating on Google. Reviewers write that they’re generally happy with the friendly medical staff, and the ability to reach out via text or phone call at any time was incredibly helpful.
Busy customers who can’t find time to see their doctor adore the ease of receiving their birth control. Described as convenient and hassle-free, birth control pill users tend to love this service.
Pill Club may be an option for folks who have a hard time finding a gynecologist in their insurance network or simply need an easy way to retrieve their birth control.
It’s best fit for those who prefer to use the pill. The service generally streamlines the process of finding a good option, since it can also provide a prescription.
If you want a convenient way to receive your birth control on a regular basis, it may be worth checking out Pill Club.
You don’t have to go through the process of making an appointment or physically visiting the doctor, and once you find the birth control that works for you, it’ll ship directly to you every 1 to 3 months.
Melissa Lee is a Market Wellness Editor at Healthline. She’s based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When she’s not trying out new skincare or researching wellness product trends, she can be found buying books to add to her TBR pile. Follow her on Instagram.