8 hours ago
Confessions of a Former Nurx Addict
It was the beginning of 2019—I had been working at a new company for almost exactly a year, and I was super stressed about my healthcare situation. No, I didn't have any diseases or serious conditions. I wasn't sick or even worried about the possibility of getting sick (although that joke was on me; I caught COVID-19 four separate times in 2020). But for the first time in my life, I found myself in health insurance hell.
To be fair, dealing with any healthcare bureaucracy in America is sure to be frustrating and annoying, and will most likely turn into a Kafkaesque nightmare. But when you're 28 and still in the honeymoon phase of a new-ish relationship, an abrupt cut-off of your birth control—with no warning and no clear path to restart it—starts to feel less like a logistical hiccup and more like an existential crisis.
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See, the OB-GYN I saw once a year was on vacation, then booked for the next seven months straight (not that she was in-network anyway), and WITH INSURANCE, the pharmacy was charging me over $130 for one pack, only one month's worth, of pills. The health insurance at my last two jobs had charged me $0 for birth control. In fact, at that point, I had been taking Lo Loestrin FE regularly for 12 years and had never once paid for it.
I was, as the kids say, shook.
Thankfully, in the midst trying to figure out what to do, I was in the kitchen with a couple of coworkers, when I overheard them mention Nurx. They were both raving about it, but I couldn't tell if it was a fancy boutique or a new dish at their favorite brunch spot—all I could tell was that they both thought Nurx was great.
I was having fun making wild guesses in my head, but I also. didn't want to miss out on something seemingly so delightful, so I finally asked them, 'What's Nurx?'
In retrospect, it's a little weird that both ladies were surprised I hadn't heard of it. Because, remember this took place pre-COVID and the ensuing telehealth boom.
In fact, in 2019, only 10% of Americans ever participated in a telehealth visit, according to a 2024 survey conducted by hims & hers; the most recent data shows a 440% rise in telehealth adoption with 54% having had a telehealth appointment as of early 2025.
While I might have been early to to the telemedicine game compared to the general public, I was late to Nurx, which launched in 2015, as far as my work friends were concerned. And they were right.
For the next four years, everything about my birth control was seamless. I paid $15 dollars for an initial consult (I believe that fee has gone up to $28 now for birth control patients), and by some incredible stroke of luck, the same afternoon I learned about Nurx, I received a company-wide email explaining that our health insurance plans were changing slightly. The notice didn't go into much detail other than that our copays would be going up—birth control costs definitely weren't mentioned—but I found out via chat with the Nurx team through their app that my medication cost would be $0. They would send me three packs at a time, refills were automatic and shipping was free.
Other than the initial $15, I would only have to pay a $3 service fee each month—meaning one full year of Lo Loestrin FE would come out to approximately $51. Just days prior, the same health insurance company wanted me to pay around $87 more for a single pack of medicine from a pharmacy where I'd have to remember to call in all my own refills, go pick them up every single month, wait in a never-ending line and then have some pharmacy tech tell me 'it's gonna be another 30 minutes,' despite the text on my phone announcing 'my prescription is ready for pick-up.'
In all honestly, I had become dependent on the impeccable consistency and convenience of Nurx. It felt like the company had truly taken a necessary task (managing your birth control) off your plate and put it on the the most dependable auto-pilot.
At the end of 2019, Nurx sent out an email recapping exciting things that had happened that year, and it mentioned how they had not only launched HPV home testing and STI home testing and treatment, but also how August 2019 marked one year of providing PrEP home test kits for HIV prevention. I remember at some point later down the line, the introduced some prescription skin products, but as long as my birth control was being taken care of, I really wasn't paying attention to Nurx. It was great!
Then, on March 20, 2023, I received a message from Nurx stating, 'Lo Loestrin Fe will no longer be stocked at our pharmacy. This means we cannot refill your birth control prescription.' But it went on to offer me options, Nurx could send my prescription to a local pharmacy or I could work with their medical team to find something similar to switch to.
Considering that I had noticeably (and quickly) gained weight on three different birth controls my OB-GYN had me try before we landed on Lo Loestrin Fe, the decision was a no-brainer. So I asked them to to send to my local pharmacy, and it was OK for the most part. I missed the convenience of getting my prescription shipped directly to my apartment and I could only get one pack at a time instead of three, but I couldn't really complain.
At least not until March 21, 2024. The only reason I know some of these exact dates is because I did complain; I complained via a 1,400-word email with certain sections highlighted yellow and other section written with pink or blue or orange. I utilized the 'bold' function more than was necessary. I must imagine that my email was the most colorful 'angry email' Nurx has ever received.
What happened? Well, the only thing that Nurx had figured out how to automate yet was the yearly renewal process. Once a year, you had to go onto their platform to manually renew your prescription. I had done exactly that on February 21, 2024 and immediately received a confirmation that my renewal went through; the next day, I got another message confirming that my prescription had been sent to my pharmacy.
I was able to pick up my first pack of birth control (of the 12-mont prescription) on March 21, 2024—but when I tried to put in the next month's refill, the pharmacy said they had no record of me or my Lo Loestrin FE in its system. When I reached out to Nurx, I was told they had already sent all remaining refills to my local pharmacy and suggested I speak to them, clearly forgetting that the pharmacy had insisted I get in touch with Nurx. It was a never-ending circle of not getting my birth control, yet continuing to pay a $3 service fee every month. I tried everything I could think of, but Nurx stopped responding to my messages, including my colorful monster-of an email. Despite the unfortunate ending of my time with Nurx, it was, without-a-doubt, it was still the best and easiest approach to birth control prescriptions that I've ever seen. After my March refill ran out and I was just beginning to step into my drama-filled exit with the telehealth platform, the pharmacist who was telling me I didn't exist in their system ended up giving me a free pack of Lo Loestrin FE. My former OB-GYN had moved away, and so I found a new doctor on ZocDoc and went back to relying on my yearly well-woman exam as a means to procure my birth control.
I wasn't overly fond of this physician so when I realized she had only prescribed me six months worth of Lo Loestrin Fe, I decided I wasn't even going to bother calling her office to ask for a refill. It was October 2024 at this point, living in a post-COVID world, I expected to find more than one freshly launched telehealth platform that would surely outrival Nurx.
After some research I chose to create an account with Pandia Health, a telehealth platform focused solely on women's hormonal care from birth control to hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
I knew that Nurx had been adding treatments here and there, but it wasn't until I started looking into new telehealth options that I realized it had evolved into far more than just a birth control platform. They now offer everything from Ozempic and Wegovy for weight management and prescription anti-aging skin care to minoxidil for women's hair loss and essential everyday care for core gynecological issues. But it's their mental health services that seem to have gained the most traction—now standing alongside birth control as one of Nurx's primary offerings.
I was surprised to find a number of online reviews comparing Nurx to Brightside Health, a subscription-based online psychiatry and therapy platform that I also happen to use; I started on Brightside in 2020 and remain a member to this day. I only have great things about my experience with Brightside but, for me, comparing the two is an apples-oranges situation.
And through writing this piece, it seems somewhat obvious to me that Nurx was going through some massive changes at the time of my issue with them. And considering how disastrous Pandia Health turned out to be—every single month you're expected to fill out and submit a form consenting to your prescription, and since it can take up to 10 days to arrive (if it ever actually does), you're constantly inundated with 'refill reminder' and 'refill consent confirmation reminder' emails—Nurx is still easily the best way I've ever received birth control. When it was working, it was the gold standard. I can only hope that any of the kinks I experienced were from its growth spurt into a fully fledged online clinic for women's health and that the shortcomings I encountered have all been worked out by now.
As for me, after Pandia failed to deliver my birth control twice, I stopped using them. I then embarked upon an exhaustive, all-night search for a platform that met, what I thought was, some simple criteria—it needed to either be cheap or take my insurance, carry Lo Loestrin FE, able to send three packs at the same time and actually send them to directly to me through the mail. I finally decided two out of four wasn't that bad. I signed up with an online medical consultation service called Dr.B, which was very simple and very cheap (a consultation is $15, then medication costs are handled by your insurance). But I had to have them send the prescription to a local New York pharmacy and I only get one pack at a time.
I thought after such a struggle, I was finally in OK place with my birth control. Do I have to physically drag myself to a pharmacy? Yes, but at least Dr.B doesn't clog up my inbox by sending emails every other day. I actually picked up my first packet of Lo Loestrin Fe placed through Dr.B last Friday. The pharmacist called to let me know it was ready and then said, 'Can you come pick it up ASAP? I told her I'd come in after work. She responded with, 'OK, like you really need to come get it though because we're closing down. Closing down for good.' 'When exactly?' I asked. Her answer? Monday.
So that's a new birth control thing to worry about. I'm honestly considering restarting my subscription with Nurx.
