Getting the right birth control ultimately means asking the right person the right questions.

"The critical issue [in getting birth control] is whether a woman can make an appointment with someone who has the time to talk about all the issues," says Dr. Peter J. Zuromskis '66, former director of UHS' urgent care clinic.

One first-year woman, who also had a prescription for the pill from home, says she got a quick appointment and thorough advice--as well as a pill prescription she calls "an improvement" over her old one--at UHS.

"I haven't had any problems at all," she says.

A Women's Issue

The search for a personalized method of dependable and safe birth control has been a top women's issue since Margaret Sanger, the founder of the Planned Parent-hood movement, crusaded for the legalizations of contraceptives in the early 20th century.

The advent of the pill 30 years ago greatly reduced the risk of pregnancy and made sex more convenient.

For college students, this question is particularly confusing because this is often their first experience with birth control.

"[Contraceptives are] a significant part of what we do," says Chief of Medicine at UHS Dr. Charles H. Weingarten. "[The] clinicians are comfortable with what we do."

Making an Appointment

If a Harvard woman is thinking about using birth control and would like to speak to a professional, she should make an appointment to see a UHS primary care physician, says Andrea Chapin, a nurse practitioner at the health service.

Depending on the problem or concern, a student can make an appointment to see a gynecologist, a nurse practitioner or a physician who specializes in internal medicine, according to UHS nurse practitioner Susan Bowman.

Most people who make appointments to discuss birth control are women, the nurse practitioner says. Several men come in and about 5 to 10 percent of Bowman's patients come as couples.

During the visit, Bowman says she asks a woman about her sexual history, any past methods of birth control and the type of relationship she is in. This provides a "baseline exam so that everyone knows where you're coming from," says Dr. Harris Faigel '56, the director of the Brandies student health service and treasurer of the New England College Health Association.

Even those students with a birth control prescription written by a doctor out-of-state may need to stop by UHS because local pharmacies don't usually honor such prescriptions.