On a normal evening when I was scrolling through TikTok, I began to notice a pattern on my For You page. Recently, it seems that there has been this anti-birth control pill narrative being pushed by either those that have their personal experience using this form of contraceptive or those that have 0 knowledge of it hands-on at all. While of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions based on their perceptions or knowledge, I found it interesting how this rhetoric took a position that so strongly discouraged young women from taking the pill based on their own opinionated and unique bodily reaction to it. If there’s one takeaway about birth control I’ve learned in my life it’s this: everyone’s body reacts differently. What is dangerous about pushing this biased and negative stigma about the pill is the fact that TikTok is such a popular platform where young girls tend to find advice on. So let’s dissect where this narrative comes from by using my own experience on the pill, and where this narrative can end up if not received by the correct audience.
I started the pill in the Summer of 2020. This has been a choice I have been wanting to act on ever since I realized the gravity of my menstrual cycle experiences. Ever since I was of age to begin noticing my period pattern, I quickly realized I actually had no pattern at all. My time of the month came randomly and 90% of the time I was unprepared without pads or tampons on hand. It was a real inconvenience navigating this part of my life. Not to mention the excruciating pain my cramps had on my body. I have a vivid core memory of being home on day 1 of my period when I began to notice something was wrong. The pain was worse than usual, and I felt extremely lightheaded. I quickly went downstairs to see if I could take some over-the-counter medicine when my vision began to blur and I saw stars. I was hunched over, in pain, and on the verge of passing out. I had never felt anything like it. I crawled back upstairs and cried to my dad as he was the only person home at the time, begging him to make it stop. I felt hopeless as this pain was like nothing I had ever experienced and nothing I could compare it to. He did not know what to do, so he just did his best to comfort me until the pain finally passed. Unfortunately, this was not the only time my cycle gave me this extreme discomfort. It also happened on a school trip to Corpus Christi where I began to feel the same painful symptoms as before, except with the added bonus of nausea. This happened at a mall, so I had to rush to the public restrooms to take care of my business, and afterward, I was so defeated I just had to lie on the JC-Penny shoe department seats to calm down. I’ll never forget the young girl and her mother that passed by me while I was lying down, and the little girl goes “Mommy why is she like that?” The only thing I thought of at that moment was “I’m probably you in the future.” (I did not say that, obviously.) Needless to say, that experience was humbling in public and it once again reminded me how severe my cycle was, so much so that it began to affect my daily life on a larger scale. All of this was enough for me to finally decide to begin the pill.
After informative conversations with my gynecologist, and weighing out the pros and cons, I knew this was the next step to take for my health. And it changed my life. Ever since I’ve been on the pill, I have gotten my period on the same day every month. I finally have a normal and predictable cycle. Not to mention the pain is now very manageable, and I have never had another unfortunate public breakdown again. Everything for me seemed to change for the better. The pill has helped me better understand my body, and better navigate my future. This was all possible through experiencing this on my own terms and being able to not have a voice in the back of my mind discouraging me or promoting fear.
As someone with this detailed and personal experience with a period and being on the pill, seeing so many individuals try to advocate for other young women to not start the pill seems uninformed and dangerous. To say your bad experience will be everyone else’s would be as ignorant as me saying my positive experience is going to be the sure outcome as well. The truth is, how can any of us truly know how a new hormonal change will affect an individual without experiencing it ourselves? The best estimate we can get is advice from medical professionals themselves, and not from harmful TikTok rhetoric. My story will not be someone else’s exactly, but it can be an inspiration to not be afraid to have these discussions with your doctor. To anyone out there that has ever considered the pill, don’t take the opinionated advice from a non-medical professional, from a scary TikTok, or even from myself. The one thing I can say is just make the choice you feel is best for your body much like I did on my own terms.