Altavera^®

The two main ingredients in Altavera® are progestin and estrogen. By taking your pill at the same time every day, these two hormones will stop you from ovulating. You take the pill in 28-day cycles that correlate with your own menstrual cycle.

While Altavera® is a relatively safe drug, there are a few groups of people that might want to consider a progesterone only form of birth control. For example, people with lipid disorders, problems with liver function, a history of blood clots, high blood pressure, or depression might benefit from another pill instead.

Additionally, women with diabetes should also know that Altavera® can affect your blood sugar. This means you'll need to be on the lookout for signs of high blood sugar at all times, which include increased thirst and urination.

The chance of side effects from Altavera® is rare, but if you do develop them, expect them to be mild. Women may find they experience fluid retention (especially in the feet and ankles), breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, vomiting, or nausea. Most of these symptoms will disappear in about three months after your body gets used to Altavera®.

Otherwise, the other change to be on the lookout for is changes to your menstrual cycle. At first, you might find your periods are lighter or that you skip them entirely. This is normal, but just let your medical provider know if you miss more than two periods in a row, as this could mean you're pregnant.

Most people are excellent candidates for taking Altavera® for birth control. However, if you're taking specific medications, your medical provider may suggest another pill that has a lower chance of side effects. Some of the medications that don't mix well with Altavera® include aromatase inhibitors, chronic hepatitis C medications, tamoxifen, ospemifene, tranexamic acid, and tizanidine.

There are also medications that can lower the effectiveness of Altavera®. These include St. John's wort, modafinil, griseofulvin, rifamycins, and drugs to treat seizures or HIV.

Any weight gain you experience when starting this medication is likely due to fluid retention, and should decrease after your body adjusts. If you experience significant weight gain or loss after starting a new contraceptive, it's important to let your healthcare provider know.

While not originally intended to treat acne, studies have found that some birth control medications can reduce breakouts and inflammation. If you're interested in learning more about what birth control might help your acne symptoms, visit our Birth Control for Acne page to get started.

Your Nurx medical provider will partner with you to find the best care for your symptoms and medical concerns. As medically appropriate, a Nurx provider may prescribe birth control to help manage symptoms associated with PMS (Premenstrual syndrome) and/or PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder), or to help with cycle control (delayed period). In some cases, birth control may also be used to help manage symptoms of endometriosis and/or PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), and to assist with improving acne. While the use of birth control is considered “off-label” for these listed purposes, a licensed Nurx clinician may prescribe birth control if they deem doing so medically appropriate.

Consultation
Anyone who requests a birth control prescription will be charged a $28 consultation fee. Please note that at this time, we do not submit claims to insurance for the medical consult fee.

Medication
For those with health insurance, your prescription will be free in most cases if it is covered by your health insurance, and we accept your plan. Insurance companies set the “copay” for prescriptions and depending on your plan and the prescription, this will usually be $0. Please connect with your insurance company if you would like to learn more about your copay. If you do have a copay, Nurx will authorize a $30 hold at checkout. If your copay is over $30, you will receive a notification to approve the updated amount.

Support Fee
Nurx will charge a flat $3 support fee each month one or more of your orders are processed. This fee covers your unlimited, on-demand access to our customer care team as well as certain processing fees. This fee will only be charged once in any month, even if you have multiple orders processed that month. This fee applies whether the order is filled through Nurx or at your local pharmacy. If your order is filled via Nurx, the support fee is billed at the time of fulfillment. If your prescription is sent to a local pharmacy, a support fee will be applied at that time. In the future, the support fee will be applied on a cadence that matches your medication refill cadence.

Yes, we accept most forms of private health insurance for medications. If you’d like to know if we accept your health insurance plan, please connect with our team at [email protected]. Please note that at this time, we do not submit claims to insurance for the medical consult fee.
Nurx does not accept any federal or state government insurance plans, such as Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, or any of their affiliated managed care plans, nor can Nurx service such patients. We recommend that you find a local provider in your community that participates in your government payer program.