‘Hormone Hesitancy’ - Young people are ditching their birth control
Experts have blamed Tik Tok for a trend dubbed ‘hormone hesitancy,’ after more and more women ditch their birth control, seeking natural contraceptive methods instead.
Data published in BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health has displayed a change in contraceptive methods since 2020, switching from hormonal options like the implant, patch and pill, to fertility awareness and natural planning via period tracking apps such as Flo. As a result, a greater proportion of women have been seeking abortions due to failed contraception.
Researchers have pointed to Tik Tok as a factor in the growing shift in attitude towards hormonal contraception like the pill, however social media users have argued that the increase in content around hormonal birth control has more to do with helping women become more aware of their options. As well as raise more awareness around the lack of research into female reproductive health and create discussions on the side effects that often occur due to being on forms of hormonal birth control. Side effects can range from things like fluid retention, changes in attitudes toward sex, and more seriously and less commonly occurring, strokes and blood clots, according to Rigevidon, a brand of the combined pill.
Lily, 21, a primary education student explains how her experience with various contraceptive pills caused her to become “severely depressed, extremely insecure and lacked any motivation to do anything.”
Lily said: “It was at this point I had decided to cease taking hormonal contraceptives all together. Since doing so, I am so much happier, my general health is so much better, and I feel that was the best decision I had made for myself.”
Other people have come forward explaining that their birth control was given to them for issues other than contraceptive purposes, predominantly for managing endometriosis, adenomyosis and Polycystic ovaries syndrome (PCOS).
One former pill user with endometriosis explains how “the pill is treated way too much as a one and done treatment for basically anything linked to reproductive health.”
This comes amid a recent debate in the House of Commons, which discussed how women with endometriosis had been ‘failed’ in the workplace.
Paula Baraitser, medical director of the NHS-partnered free sexual health service provider SH:24 has said: “People’s experience of hormonal contraception is highly variable and ultimately, we need a larger choice of methods to enable people to find one that suits them.”
Natural contraceptive methods involve understanding the menstrual cycle and using menstrual tracking apps to see when ovulation occurs, which is when a female is most fertile. The NHS have explained that even when followed correctly, fertility tracking is only 76% effective, compared to the 99% effectiveness of the pill when taken correctly, meaning that out of every 100 women who track fertility, 24 of those women will fall pregnant in the year.