Influencers need to stop encouraging people to get off hormonal birth controll, saying that critics of the rise of TikToks (with varying degrees of scientific accuracy) discuss the downsides of contraception and promote the use of the methods instead.” natural birth control”. After all, unintended pregnancy, which can be more likely depending on the method of contraception, is a risk in the United States, where abortion rights is fragile and has a maternal mortality crisis. Some say that women decry hormonal birth control on TikTok as “fear“; they are “playing in the hands of what is right.” The timing of viral videos about the downsides of birth control is simply not ideal. Don’t these creators understand the danger?
The opportunity to capitalize on this moment, fueled by the sometimes murky ethics of social media, doesn’t help. There is money made out of all uncertainty; influencers with promo codes, for example, endorsing alternative birth control options without discussing the downsides. And familiar wrong transformed from social relationship Making social media platforms appealing can make it difficult to decipher what is genuine and what is a sale. Given how easy it is to find bad information, asking how we can convince people not using TikTok for advice on birth control or content creators to verify their claims is completely natural thing.
These concerns are fair. But what these critiques miss is the more important question of why people are turning to social media for this in the first place. Sexually active people who want to avoid pregnancy can have a health care provider transparent about the pros and cons of birth control options — or they can medically gasping and says the side effects are not a big deal and can’t be related to birth control. The fact that many people are chasing answers in a system is rife implicit prejudice against women’s health concerns and a history of prioritizing fertility over personal preference.
That can lead people to the internet. There, they can come across heartfelt testimonies that make them feel like they’ve finally been seen. Many of these detailed TikTokers were never informed of the side effects and the doctors were not interested in discussing other options. As a result, they expressed skepticism that contraceptive options are essentially pharmaceutical interventions—these creators and their viewers seem to reject the medical basis because they feel rejected. And while critics say controversial birth control conversations are irresponsible, people will continue to encounter misinformation or make strong personal choices based on closeness. frame less than altruism as long as their concerns are dismissed by experts. The distrust of hormonal birth control may be most obvious online, but it logically begins at the doctor’s office.
Arguments against Hormonal birth control is now flooding the long-established TikTok, Kathryn Clancya professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of Ky: The True Story of Menstruation. Side effects of birth control — such as acne, weight gain, loss of sex drive, and mood swings — have been documented in many studies, although there is disagreement about the validity of birth control. some results. One complication is that the scientific understanding of the underlying mechanisms, particularly libido and mental health, is limited. “A lot of factors in life can change them, and often birth control is the cause.” Aparna Sridhar, an obstetrician and gynecologist and clinical associate professor at UCLA. At the same time, some larger studies have found, for example, a correlation between hormonal birth control and an increase in risk of depression and a lower sense of happiness.
However, the side effects are one of the main reason Why do menstruating women not use birth control? In one Research in 2021, the highest proportion of people who wanted another method of birth control were hormonal contraceptive users; those using non-drug methods were six times more likely to be satisfied with their contraceptive method than the control group. But because hormonal birth control is considered safe and effective, little effort has been made to create new methods that alleviate patients’ concerns. Women’s contraceptive preferences “simply have not been adequately researched and funded, and unmet needs are ignored and misunderstood by those who could work to address those needs.” this problem”. report a 2020 paper published in Nature.
