There certainly are some side effects to taking birth control pills and depending on the person they may react differently or not react at all.
In my case I got some heart issues which made sense because it was in my family history so I just switched to the mini pill which I have taken ever since. Fucking love it. I never bleed and I don’t get pms symptoms. Just get to live a normal life without all the gross stuff.
But with all that said, I too believe that the anti birth control wave online was propaganda. It just came about a little too conveniently after the US made abortion illegal. It is just a tad bit too coincidental.
I followed it a bit when it began getting traction some years ago and I felt very confused and disturbed by the narrative being passed around about birth control. It felt like fear mongering and I just felt confused by the symptoms women were reporting online. I have literally never in my life heard of any woman talk about how birth control made her depressed and I have after all been in the game for awhile and known many women who have been in it too. That was the first thing that made me lift an eyebrow.
Then I watched a video where some expert was talking about how birth control pills make women less attracted to manly men and more attracted to feminine men. I forget the name of the expert but I do remember that she was associated with conservatives and had their interests in mind. I thought it was very funny that she was essentially blaming birth control for women being attracted to unacceptable men.
And honestly, I have a question I would like to ask that expert, because when I was a teen girl, before I got on birth control, I was VERY attracted to scrawny men with long hair and eyeliner. Manly men did nothing for me.
I got on birthcontrol at 19 and wanna know what happened to my taste in men over the years? It evolved to being more focused on men with more masculine traits. Instead of scrawny I began finding men who were filled out, more attractive. I began thinking that beards were hot when I had always found them kinda gross. I thought that men who looked a bit gruff went from being gross and boring to being cute and attractive.
I’m pushing 40 now and my spouse is the exact opposite of what I was attracted to as a teen. There is nothing feminine about him.
But I think I know what that expert meant. She’s blaming women choosing partners who treats them as their equals on birth control. Because here is the thing about my man: he may not look feminine nor does he particularly act feminine, but he’s also not a brute who thinks he’s the head of the household and I am his servant. He doesn’t act like he is better than me nor does he feel entitled to me at all. He cooks and cleans. He is very good with emotional talks and being attentive and empathetic. He is very encouraging and has basically no control issues besides claiming the kitchen as his domain. That’s mostly I might be one of the worst cooks in the world.
Women want men who are emotionally intelligent, who are their equals and who are good partners. They don’t want a slave master. And I think that is why American conservatives are trying to blame birth control. If you can convince women that they are taking a pill that mind controls them into wanting something unnatural and wrong, then they may be more compliant than of you flat out blame them for having higher standards for their men than their mothers and grandmothers had.
There are definitely side effects to taking birth control but there are also side effects to taking pain killers.
I have no doubt the anti birth control wave is orcastrated by the very people who are trying to take away women’s autonomy in the US and beyond. I see the anti abortion movement starting to take root in Europe too and I fucking hate it.
humanity is awesome at kicking its own ass
When they’re willing to ignore the family’s wishes to pull the plug in life support of a dead woman because the corpse has a fetus growing inside of it, I don’t think anyone should be finishing inside of anyone else without multiple forms of birth control.
Do not respond to any of this; just wait around for 2026 and try voting fascism out again.
You won’t be around 2026 to vote them out woth the way things are going.
You are not allowed to enter usa unless you are pro trump.
You think you are allowed to exist in usa that every day takes steps to eradicate those trump seems undesireable? Trumps gonna make you dig your own grave and shoot you in the back in the head before he lets you vote him out.
It’s possible the election was stolen, and no amount of voter turnout could have prevented Trump from taking office.
What then? Would you still tell us to “not respond … and try voting” ?
I was being wildly facetious because that’s what every shitlib is telling us to do. Also, they arent buying the stolen election story for some stupid fucking reason.
Cause “just be peaceful, non violent and civil, you can vote us out in 2 years, pinky swear” benefits literally only one party.
Hrm, I’m sorry but your messages aren’t very clear
Low birth rates are only problematic to carcinogenic ideologies.
Just want to drop this here.
Birth control is great.
Some methods of birth control are bad for you specifically. Not all birth control is equal. You are a complex piece of equipment. Birth control alters the way that equipment works. There are side effects, no matter what, and they are listed because the were well documented in clinical trials.
That does not mean you should not use birth control. It means you should work with your doctor to find the one that works best for you.
My wife tried a birth control medication that had an interaction with another medication and made her very drousy. My sister took one that made her feel suicidal. They shopped around and found something that worked.
Yeah. Summarizing this, BC has a lot of side effects, but pregnancy has even more.
Frankly, I’m hoping that RISUG makes it to the US. I would get two reversible injections in the crotch to basically prevent pregnancy with zero side effects.
Thanks for mentioning this. Never heard of that before. So we have a almost 100% effective, one-time use, most likely reversible, cheap contraceptive that is free of unwanted side effects. sadly it would lessen the profit of pharmaceutical companies, so we can’t have it. too bad.
yay for capitalism!
Just do condoms?
Or everyone can look at the variety of options and decide what’s best for them at any given time.
Condoms are a great option, and they have the added bonuses of also protecting against STIs and being able to work alongside pharmaceutical contraception. That last bit is big because if you’re absolutely unwilling to have kids and abortion is illegal or something you’re unwilling to do you probably want to be using two methods.
I’m the first to praise condoms especially with people choosing not to vaccinate their children against HPV and with the fact that they’re how one can be certain that they don’t impregnate anyone else. But they too have downsides including that most people aren’t very good at using them.
BC pills have usages outside of contraception. It can be used to treat various issues related to hormones.
Condoms are fine if you want to protect from STIs, but they’re less effective than other hormone based contraceptives to prevent conceptions.
And much, much, much more expensive.
I highly encourage anyone that doesn’t want to ever have kids, to go get tied or snipped so that you won’t ever have to worry about it.
And if you’re in a conservative hell state in the United States where doctors refuse to do a tubal ligation unless you have one child, are over 30, or “get your (nonexistent) husband to sign off on it”, find a doctor in Washington, California, Massachusetts, or really any non Republican dumpster fire, and they’ll likely treat you like an adult. Likely. Not bitter about that at all.
I’ve told my partner that if anyone needs my sign-off on any medical decisions, they are to inform the provider that I will be more than happy to do it, but I’m going to punch whomever is requiring it in the face first.
One of my best friends had endo. She tried to get it fixed (she is not straight and never wanted kids) and she was told “no, there’s other options, we’re not doing a hysterectomy” multiple times.
I believe it was her third suicide attempt after being admitted multiple other times for self harm that they finally took her shit out.
She’s been fine since then. No suicide-inducing pain, no debilitation, no problem. You’re right—it’s fucking insane that it has to come to that.
I won’t do this until we have a surgery that allows you to turn your sperm production on and off at any time with the push of a button.
I don’t want kids but I may want them someday, and I rather not have to go through surgery twice and spend a bunch of money just because I changed my mind.
Iirc they can extract sperm directly from the testicles with a needle for folks who don’t want to/can’t get a vasectomy reversed but change their mind about kids, not a fun procedure to go through I’m sure but still easier than reversing a vasectomy and a much shorter recovery time
How would you feel about adopting?
I got snipped and then got married to someone who already had a kid, so I ended up being a (step-)parent anyway. But I told my doctor that if I ever changed my mind, I would adopt.
Good news everyone! That already exists. https://bimek.com/
Uh, yeah, as an idea, lol:
Since spring 2016, we have had the OK from an ethics committee of a renowned clinic in Germany for the clinical study on the Bimek SLV Model 4. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to find the financial means to start the clinical study.
For an investment of 600k € we could at best have the test valves manufactured. But then there would be no money left to push the study forward in compliance with all medical device laws. If no further investments were made then, the validity of the sterile packaging would expire.
It is not easy to find investors for this project if one is honest and openly communicates known risks.
Seeing “© 2018” at the bottom of the website doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either, lol.
I practice natural family planning
It’s called being ugly
Look into open-source apps. You’re on freakin’ Lemmy.
well, thats tumblr
I think we just need to type louder.
What?
THEY SAID:
I THINK WE NEED TO TYPE LOUDER
Thanks, I couldnt read it the first time 😂
Cycle tracking in Apple’s Health app is also private.
I honestly think we need to assume that all (US-based) tech giants are compromised, and the gov has full access to every single bit of data they have on you.
Even if this isn’t the case (yet), this is the most prudent way forward.
No source code, no trust with information about my period.
Bootstrappable and reproducible builds; mother fucker!!!
It is, for now, but what if the fascists eventually order Apple to give up the info?
The states that imposed these Draconian laws have terrible maternal mortality rates now and they’re trying to hide the data so they don’t have to acknowledge the harm they did. Same way it was during COVID where some state governments like Florida were attacking independent investigators for having accurate numbers when the state changed theirs to try and look better.
I knew a woman who stopped taking birth control because of occasional headaches, and she and her husband both ended up with one that didn’t move out until 23 years later.
This actually happened to me. The doctor said the birth control was raising my blood pressure. I said “I don’t think so” but turns out she was right. So I quit them and immediately got pregnant.
But when you say “occasional headaches”? The other thing I found out when I quit them is that they were amplifying my migraines quite a lot. Occasional headaches does not adequately describe that pain, vomiting from the pain.
(ETA - the copper IUD was also a nightmare for me, but eventually landed on the hormonal IUD and that was fantastic, those got me through to menopause - Birth Control doesn’t have to be the pills, and not all of the ‘hormonal’ methods are the same. And an IUD will last longer than the current administration)
I’ve used hormonal IUDs since I was 16, and they’ve fantastic. You can just have one inserted and then not have to worry for the next ~6 years. Completely stopped my period too (came back briefly before I got on T, then T stopped it again, and now it’s still gone even after being off T for several years). I can not overstate how amazing not having a period has been for my mental health.
When I first tried to get one, my doctor tried to convince me out of it because I was “too young” and hadn’t had a child yet. I’m so glad I stayed firm in my decision and got a gyno who would work with me.
There’s an open source period tracker called drip that doesn’t collect your data. Everything is kept local. My wife used it for a while and learned some things about her cycle. It was also cool being able to know almost exactly when she’d be on her period 2 months ahead of time.
Sure, the general “birth control is bad for you” message is not optimal. But the root of this misinformation are insights about the side effects coming up more or less recently. iirc one third to half of all women on hormonal birth control experience major side effects like headaches, nausea or mood changes. I can see how these significant findings combined with patriarchy awareness and associated anger led to exaggerated messages.
Nonetheless, I think people thinking more critically about birth control is a good thing as one should always consider both benefits and risks.
Edit: Or did I misread this post? If so, I’m very sorry…
Yeah the pill is a great tool but can definitely have its side effects. I know my wife on it had a terribly low libido to the point we joked that’s how it kept you from getting pregnant
There are some serious health implications too like reduced bone density, heart issues, and cancer risks. Women should have the choice to take them if they want to obviously, but there can be very real side effects.
I think there is a lot you can about side-effects on anti-conception (from condoms are a hassle to pills mess with hormones), but lately young people are more in favour of ‘natural sex’ such as you pulling out early when the woman is ovulating which is (obviously) far less effictive. But the thing is,
one should always consider both benefits and risks.
young people aren’t good at considering the the results of those results because a) their brain is still developing and b) experience comes from trying. They need to be protected against themselves, just like we do with alcohol, drugs, driving etc.
Do you know what has all of those adverse effects in much greater frequency while also having a profound effect on your life? Pregnancy
Yes, the medical field has done a fucking terrible job of communicating the adverse effects of anything to do exclusively with AFAB bodies - look up what an IUD insertion is like without anesthesia - but again, if we compare hormonal birth control to pregnancy in terms of adverse physiological and mental effects, it’s not even on the same planet.
Yeah, it might not be great for a sizable percentage of folks, and a minute percentage of folks have more immediately dangerous adverse effects that make taking hormonal birth control impossible, but in almost every case pregnancy is worse.
There’s an obvious reason to get pregnant, for sure, but it comes with much, much greater risks than preventing it, especially if you don’t want the intended outcome of pregnancy.
look up what an IUD insertion is like without anesthesia
Yep. When I got my first IUD in, that was some of the worst pain I had experienced in my life. Felt like I was getting stabbed in the cervix, and the cramps afterwards were so bad I puked. Totally worth it, but I wish they had prepared me more beforehand (said I would feel a “pinch”).
I feel like the tumblr post is aimed primarily at hormonal birth control and the like. This is what I had in mind writing my comment at least. I am not arguing in support of not using any birth control at all. The simplest and not much less safe method are condoms. Easy to use and basically no side effects.
I think headaches and nausea are preferable over unwanted children for most people
I get where you’re coming from, but there’s a bit of a (hopefully unintended) subtext in your comment that women must be the ones to bear the inconvenience in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Used correctly, condoms are about 1% off from hormonal birth control in effectiveness. But I guess headaches, nausea, and other side effects for women aren’t all that bad compared to some reduced sensation for the penis. After all, women are already used to it from their cycles, right? /s
Discomfort or inconvenience of condoms would also be preferable to an unwanted child for most people. Be safe, use both
women must be the ones to bear the inconvenience in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Women are the ones who get pregnant. Take it up with evolution.
This is like complaining that you’re the one who’s expected to lock your doors to prevent unwanted people in your house. Sure, you CAN choose to trust someone else to lock your doors for you, but ultimately, it IS your house, and YOU’RE the one who suffers the consequences if there’s a break-in, so when it comes down to it, it makes perfect sense to consider it primarily YOUR responsibility to take the precaution against the outcome that YOU (at least, you more than anyone else) don’t want.
Used correctly, condoms are about 1% off from hormonal birth control in effectiveness. But I guess headaches, nausea, and other side effects for women aren’t all that bad compared to some reduced sensation for the penis.
Don’t pretend women don’t also prefer sex without a condom, lol. Condoms are never wanted, by either men or women, when their STI/contraceptive ‘abilities’ aren’t needed.
After all, women are already used to it from their cycles, right?
The biggest irony of this is that women can stop having periods altogether with the right contraception, and that’s one of the many reasons women (especially those who have especially-unpleasant/painful periods) go on them, aside from actually needing to prevent pregnancy.
Don’t most of these issues relate to the pill specifically? The pill releases far more hormones in the body than a UDI which to my understanding is safe for most women.
Handing out endocrine disrupting medication to teenagers for decades to come is a pretty crazy idea if you stop to think about it. Not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but we do have a lot to learn about how the human body works.
Everyone should be using condoms, though. It’s a good backup for monogamous couples and it’s the bare minimum that people who change partners more frequently should do. Have you seen the Gonorrhoea stats lately? And the antibiotic resistance? Bag it!
Handing out endocrine disrupting medication to teenagers is a pretty crazy idea
JK Rowling would be proud.
the ole’ “we don’t have enough data to let children have autonomy over their bodies”
That’s one way to read it. That’s not what I meant. Not everything is about that troll.
The whole point of everything they’re doing is to create an uneducated population of easily manipulated fodder. Of course people are forgetting. This effort has been running for 20-30 years (or longer) at this point, and it’s working.
Yup, and it’s working so well they’ve shifted into next gear and are stepping up the plans.
Gotta grow new soldiers for the next war
