I recently made a video about the differences between pads and tampons in Germany and the
USA, and you know what I saw located just around the corner from the pads and the tampons
in the store that I went to in Florida?
Birth control.
So how about a video on that too?
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Let’s start with an overview of what kinds of birth controls I found in the store that
I went to in Florida.
And just to clarify this was not a sex store or anything like that.
This was a just a “normal” store, selling all kinds of grocery items, that I went into
last November in South Florida.
They had spermicide that came in the form of vaginal contraceptive gel
as well as contraceptive film.
They had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of different kinds of male condoms
-- thin ones, ribbed ones, all sorts of ones.
And they had two brands of emergency contraception.
Whereas in Germany the only kind of birth control that I saw at the “normal” store
was male condoms.
But as I’ve said in so many videos already, I know it is probably getting old and boring
by now, but yeah, there were just way more different kinds of condom in the U.S. than in...
oh wait, what’s that?
Oh. Huh! Just kidding! Yeah, I know. I have said it before lots of times.
In America there is a bigger and broader selection when it comes to ice cream, cream cheese,
orange juice, pads, tampons, basically everything...but not condoms.
The number of different kinds of condoms in the store in the U.S. and the store that I
went to in Germany was the same.
Which means that because the store in the U.S. was way, way, way, way bigger than the
store here in Germany, proportionally speaking the condom section in the store in Germany
took up a lot more store space.
As far as emergency contraception in Germany goes, it’s not available at the “normal”
store, a drugstore for example, but it is available from the pharmacy without a prescription.
And, just by the way, for more information on pharmacy differences in Germany versus
the U.S., I made a video on that too, which I’ll link down in the description and in
the little I in the corner.
And now onto birth control pills, because yes, there are some differences there too.
Something that surprised me is that here in Germany birth control pills are not covered
by my insurance, whereas in the U.S. with the insurance that I had they were.
My insurance in the U.S. required me to just pay a small deductible for birth control pills
each month, while here in Germany I have to pay the full amount for the birth control
pills each month.
But, but my doctor’s visit to get the prescription for the birth control pills here in Germany
is free, whereas with my health insurance in the U.S. I did have to pay some money out
of pocket for each doctor’s visit.
As for the pill packages themselves, I’ve also experienced some differences there too.
For one, in the U.S. every single time that I bought birth control pills, they came with
a little plastic container for me to put the birth control package in. Not in Germany.
In Germany I just get the pill package itself, and I don’t know what other people do with
it, but I often have to bring it places in my purse in order to take it at the same time
every day, and I don’t really just want to carry it around without something covering it.
So Stefan made me this little container so I can put my pills in there.
But yeah, in the U.S. my birth control pills always came with some kind of a container.
Another difference is that in the U.S. my birth control pills always had four weeks of pills.
The first three weeks had the active ingredients in them, and then the fourth week of pills
did not have any active ingredients, and that’s when I got my period, but there was still
a week of pills there in the package for me to take in order to keep up the habit of taking
a pill every single day.
Here in Germany I’ve been on a couple different kinds of birth control pills and none of them
have come with four weeks of pills, always just three weeks of pills and then I'm supposed to
stop taking the pills for a week while I get my period.
Which is doable, of course.
But I find it harder to get in the rhythm of taking a pill every day, then stop for a week.
I get out of that rhythm.
And then trying to get back in the rhythm once that week is over and I start a new pack of pills.
I appreciated just being able to take a pill every single day and not really have to think about it.
And living here in the EU, sometimes my birth control pills have actually come from batches
out of another country.
For example, once or twice my birth control pills came from Italy, and because of that
the days of the week were written on the pill package in Italian, so when I bought the pills,
they did not come with a container of any kind to put the pills in, but they did come
with stickers of the days of the week in German that I could place on the pill package over
the Italian writing. I opened up the box and I was like, oh look at that!
I had no idea these birth control pills came with stickers, how exciting!
So my question for you is: what other birth control differences are there in the U.S.,
Germany, or around the world? Please let me know in the comments below.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
So how a video, video, video... Let's try this one more time!
But I like this DIY one too. Thanks Stefan!