--- title: Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control? description: Physicians usually require an annual pelvic exam before prescribing oral birth control to women, but the two practices have no medical reason to be linked.... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-12-06T20:30:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:23:36.072Z article:section: Health og:title: Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control? og:description: Physicians usually require an annual pelvic exam before prescribing oral birth control to women, but the two practices have no medical reason to be linked.... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddfa5dcb8d01dc6d/698a950d47ca3819ed3c3d70/papcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MD001043 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control? twitter:description: Physicians usually require an annual pelvic exam before prescribing oral birth control to women, but the two practices have no medical reason to be linked.... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddfa5dcb8d01dc6d/698a950d47ca3819ed3c3d70/papcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control? by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 6, 2010 8:30 PM UTC  Speculum SpeculumGetty Images—(c) Keith Brofsky by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 6, 2010 8:30 PM UTC Physicians usually require an annual pelvic exam before prescribing oral birth control to women, but the two practices have no medical reason to be linked. Indeed, according to a consortium of health-care providers and researchers, called Oral Contraceptives Over-the-Counter Working Group (OC-OTC), the annual pelvic exam is still a major barrier to access to contraception for many American women.more The OC-OTC points to a recent survey conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, which found that about one-third of 1,200 doctors surveyed always required a pelvic exam before writing a prescription for birth control pills, and 44% “regularly” required the exam. (**More on Time.com:** [Study: Does the Pill Lower Sex Drive?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/29/study-does-the-pill-lower-sex-drive/)) The survey, published in the journal _Obstetrics & Gynecology_, found that family doctors were slightly more likely than OB-GYNs to require the exam (33% versus 29%); older doctors were also more likely to insist on the exam than younger doctors, as were doctors whose patients included low-income women who used Medicaid. “The survey of clinicians about pelvic exams isn’t really surprising, but it’s one more piece of information documenting the barriers that the medical community imposes on access to contraception — barriers that are not supported by evidence,” said OC-OTC member Dr. Daniel Grossman, who is also a senior researcher at Ibis Reproductive Health in San Francisco. (**More on Time.com:** [Are You Fertile? Don’t Rely on a Drug-Store Fertility Test to Tell You](http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/28/are-you-fertile-dont-rely-on-a-drug-store-fertility-test-to-tell-you/)) The annual pelvic exam is important for screening for sexually transmitted infections, ovarian cysts, cervical cancer and other health problems, and it is a critical part of routine care for women. But it has no bearing on whether a woman should be prescribed oral contraception. And in many cases — because of scheduling problems or resistance to seeing a doctor — the exam prevents or delays women from getting birth control. Reuters recently [reported](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40323407/ns/health-womens%5Fhealth/): --- > “” --- The World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently changed their guidelines to reflect the distinction between annual check-ups and pregnancy avoidance: neither organization now requires a pelvic exam in advance of birth control prescriptions. (**More on Time.com:** [Is Birth Control Preventive Medicine?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/13/is-birth-control-preventive-medicine/)) Although there is no official recommendation for how often women should have pelvic exams, the ACOG does have guidelines for Pap smears, a cervical-cancer screen that is typically done during the annual pelvic exam. The ACOG advises Pap smears every two years from the age of 21; after the age of 30, women who have had three negative Pap smears may be screened once every three years. As Reuters [reported](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40323407/ns/health-womens%5Fhealth/): --- > “” --- If your doctor insists on a pelvic exam before prescribing birth control, it’s fair to ask why. Certainly the exam is important and there may be a medical need, but as the new study suggests, requiring one for the purposes of birth control is just habit, and isn’t based on science. **More on Time.com:**[](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/28/do-we-need-vitamin-supplemented-birth-control-pills/) [Do We Need Vitamin-Supplemented Birth Control Pills?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/28/do-we-need-vitamin-supplemented-birth-control-pills/) [FBI Issues Warning About Video Barbie’s Cleavage](http://www.parentdish.com/2010/12/03/fbi-issues-warning-about-video-barbies-cleavage/) Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/"},"headline":"Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control?","datePublished":"2010-12-06T20:30:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:23:36.072Z","description":"Physicians usually require an annual pelvic exam before prescribing oral birth control to women, but the two practices have no medical reason to be linked....","url":"https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddfa5dcb8d01dc6d/698a950d47ca3819ed3c3d70/papcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddfa5dcb8d01dc6d/698a950d47ca3819ed3c3d70/papcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MD001043","caption":"MD001043","creditText":"Getty Images—(c) Keith Brofsky","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143283/why-annual-exams-shouldnt-be-required-to-get-birth-control-pills/","name":"Are Doctors’ Exams a Barrier to Birth Control?"}}]}] ```