If you're a Harvard woman exploring the best way to get safe, dependable and convenient birth control, you're likely to end up at the Harvard University Health Services.

There is no doubt that a visit to UHS for contraceptive counseling can be scary, particularly for students who have never had so much as a gynecological exam.

And going to an appointment at UHS without a clear idea of what you want and what to expect can leave you confused and, on occasion, literally sick to your stomach.

One sophomore woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says not having a clear idea about birth control and her needs caused her a month's worth of pain and agony.

The woman says she first went to UHS when she "woke up sick in the middle of the night, vomiting."

Although she's sure now that her nausea was not caused by birth control, she received a new prescription from a nurse practitioner, who was concerned that the pill might have been making her sick.

Instead, her new pill made her moody and sad. "I though I was crazy because I cried all month," she says now.

The sophomore says the worst part of that visit was that the nurse practitioner pressured her into taking a pregnancy test, which she found embarrassing and inappropriate.

Although she knew she wasn't pregnant, the sophomore says she did not have the strength or the know-how to counter the advice of a health professional.

The nurse practitioner changed her prescription one more time before the student went home.

"When I went home my doctor said she couldn't believe they changed my prescription," the sophomore says. "She said what [UHS] had done was wrong."

Since that first traumatic experience, the sophomore woman has learned more about contraception, and her experiences with the health service have been better.

Like many doctors and nurses, she now believes that Harvard's student health service is pretty good at providing birth control.

"My impression is that it's actually one of the things they do best," says Melissa Bender '94, who is a counselor with Peer Contraceptives Counseling.

The trick, however, is knowing how to approach a health service that, as numerous students and doctors alleged in a Crimson series last spring, severely restricts student access to doctors.