Saundra Pelletier is marketing a new form of birth control to women wary of hormones.

Or you could have come across the product — a non-hormonal contraceptive gel that women can use within an hour before having sex — while scrolling through Instagram, somewhere between a recipe for Paleo bagels and an ode to body positivity.

This is puny compared to the estimated 8.6 million women who have undergone female sterilization or the 6.6 million women on the Pill.

But Saundra Pelletier, the chief executive officer of Evofem, is hoping to reach a generation that, unlike their foremothers, who were “liberated” by the Pill, then schooled to insist on condoms, have grown up with hormones as the default birth control option.

“I think it’s insane that women have not had an option like this before now,” she said in May.

(Condoms prevent pregnancy 87 percent of the time with typical use and diaphragms do so 83 percent of the time with typical use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Pill has a 93 percent typical-use effectiveness rate.).

Evofem’s investor materials suggest that there are millions of women in the market for a simple, use-only-when-you-need-it, non-hormonal option like Phexxi.

They are “the women who are using condoms, relying on the pullout method and hoping for the best, or the women using a natural family-planning method,” said Erin Turner, a brand manager at Evofem.

On average, women try three to four different birth control methods throughout their lives, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In one study, 91 percent of women said that no birth control method had all of the features that they consider “extremely important.”.

“For people who hate taking the Pill, who hate condoms and the sensation of them,” she said of Phexxi, “this seems like a cool, revelatory thing.”.

Complaints about available birth control methods vary.

Some do not like the side effects of birth control pills, which can include headaches, a decreased libido and emotional roller coasters.

paused use of a coronavirus vaccine because of its associated risk of blood clots, some women wondered why medical professionals are not more worried around the blood-clotting risks of birth control pills (Blood clots associated with the Pill can occur in the leg or the lungs, but the risk is very low.).

Pelletier said.

For some, taking synthetic hormones out of their routine is an opportunity to become more in sync with their body's unaltered cycle (hormonal birth control prevents ovulation).

Then he would lie in bed and “pat me for, like, half an hour,” she said.

Pelletier said.

Pelletier said.

Searle, the pharmaceutical company that first developed the birth control pill, now owned by Pfizer.

Pelletier asks applicants to explain their views on feminism, to name a few prominent feminists and to talk about whether they think men and women are treated equally.

“You can tell they look at the door like, ‘Am I going to have to run out of here?’”.

Pelletier said that after battling cancer, she decided she was done with “superficial nicety.”.

Pelletier is not afraid to tell investors when they cross a line.

Pelletier on social media — sometimes viciously.

approves it, the Phexxi formulation could be used as a prevention method for the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea

Pelletier said

Pelletier does not care