Search for “birth control” on TikTok or Instagram and a cascade of misleading videos vilifying hormonal contraception appear: Young women blaming their weight gain on the pill. Right-wing commentators claiming that some birth control can lead to infertility. Testimonials complaining of depression and anxiety.

Instead, many social media influencers recommend “natural” alternatives, such as timing sex to menstrual cycles — a less effective birth-control method that doctors warn could result in unwanted pregnancies in a country where abortion is now banned or restricted in nearly half the states.

Physicians say they’re seeing an explosion of birth-control misinformation online targeting a vulnerable demographic: people in their teens and early 20s who are more likely to believe what they see on their phones because of algorithms that feed them a stream of videos reinforcing messages often divorced from scientific evidence.

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  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    51·
    9 months ago

    The frustrating thing about this, to me, as a man who has listened to women for a long, long time is that this isn’t new…

    There are well known problems with birth control and long-term use, increased risks of blood clots, not the least among them.

    This truth is being leveraged by the right wing abusively, but it’s why I knew a lot of leftist women who insisted on men using condoms every time and not subjecting their bodies to be a playground for pharmecutical companies.

    I have personally known women who suffered damage from IUD’s and problems from other forms of implanted birth control. I’ve known women who legitimately had depression because of it. I know women who have mental health issues whom it has been prescribed to as a mood stabilizer.

    These problems have always been there to people who were aware of them. It alters your hormonal cycle, and thus alters a lot about how you feel.

    It’s sad that its being exploted by the right, and it’s further sad that publications many assume are at least liberal like the Washington Post are taking the position that the entire thing is a right-wing psy-op, not that the right-wing is leveraging a real but often-not-discussed reality of modern womanhood.

    Look, people, including young people, are fucking less than ever. More young women identify as LGBT+ than ever. The reality is whether on birth control or not, a lot of these women still don’t want to fuck a lot of the men out there, and for good god damned reasons.

    If you already aren’t fucking, then deciding to not be on birth control really doesn’t change much. So this seems like maybe its being blown out of proportion by the media for clicks. Good for women for taking care of their bodies. They’re not ruining something by not taking birth control as long as they still demand other prophylactic birth control is used. I think people really overestimate how much fucking young people are doing. There’s also a lot of bullshit on the internet and I think fewer people are using bullshit “alternative methods” than assumed.

    • klemptor@startrek.website
      5·
      9 months ago

      If you already aren’t fucking, then deciding to not be on birth control really doesn’t change much.

      There are many reasons to take birth control besides contraception. My tubes are tied so I don’t need the pill to prevent pregnancy, but I take it because I suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which is like PMS on all the steroids. Two out of every four weeks were hell. I’m 42, so yes the risk of blood clots is elevated, but the benefits are amazing. I take it continously, it has no negative effect on my libido or ability to finish, it doesn’t make me gain weight, and because I skip the placebos I never have a period. I don’t have the rage and despair; I don’t have the bloating, aching, nausea, lightheadedness, and cramping; I don’t have to plan my life around bleeding; and I never get surprised by an early period (which became a huge problem because of perimenopause).

      I know I’m a sample size of 1 but I really can’t say enough good things about my pill. I wish I’d gotten on it sooner!

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
    48·
    9 months ago

    This is always such a problem.

    These kinds of scam artists will take a grain of truth and blow it out of proportion to sell their shit.

    And in this case, their “shit” seems to be controlling women.

    Why are the Y’all Qaeda winning?.. Lol

    • ashok36@lemmy.world
      4·
      9 months ago

      Because there’s money to be made by these influencers pushing ‘natural’ alternatives to birth control.

      It always always always comes back to money one way or another.