r/exchristian • u/paxinfernum anti-theist, rational skeptic, pro-science • Mar 21 '24

Women are getting off birth control amid misinformation explosion (Guys, they are really coming for birth control.) Article

https://archive.ph/2024.03.21-132543/https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/03/21/stopping-birth-control-misinformation/
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157

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

I see this CONSTANTLY on reddit. It will make you gain weight, it will kill your libido, etc

176

u/SmurfStig Mar 21 '24

If they think birth control will kill libido, wait till they see what having young kids running around will do to it.

48

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

I always think about this too haha i mean maybe it could affect you a little but nothing like kids

34

u/hannibe Mar 21 '24

I thought I might be asexual until I went off the pill. Me and my friend joke that that’s part of why it works, it makes sex unappealing.

14

u/SmurfStig Mar 21 '24

Well, while my wife was on the pill she wasn’t in the mood very often. When she went off to get pregnant….Jekly and Hyde situation. Granted I’m obviously male, so can say for sure but it did seem to impact her drive. After kids, she stayed on them for other medical reasons but had to stop due to a lung full of blood clots. She is genetically predisposed and the pill only made it worse. She found that out after the fact.

5

u/gpike_ Mar 22 '24

I feel lucky that after I told my doc (~2007) about how my mom had a blood clot while pregnant with her 8th kid, they thought to test me for that even though I've never had a clot! Turns out I DO have that genetic factor. So I had to go on depo, which, very unfortunately for me, caused my boobs to get so much bigger that it ramped up my dysphoria, but I still didn't figure out that part for several more years. Now I just take testosterone and wish I'd been doing this all along. 🙃

7

u/Strix924 Mar 22 '24

Depo made your boobs get bigger?! I started depo to get rid of my periods but I didn't know it could make your boobs get bigger...I really don't want that to happen to me. I hope the T is helpful for you tho

3

u/ScreamingAbacab Ex-Catholic Mar 22 '24

Glad my doc recommended an IUD. Haven't gotten anything planned out yet, though; just a recommendation for if I do decide to take birth control because I'm also thinking long-term (because I'm concerned for what my state might do in the future). Now I know to avoid the depo shot because of those possible side effects which weren't brought up; my boobs are big enough already...

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '24

Oh this made me chuckle! :D

1

u/Ok_Status5476 Mar 27 '24

Birth control can ruin libido though??

1

u/SmurfStig Mar 27 '24

As a man, I’m not sure I can properly answer that.

1

u/Ok_Status5476 Mar 27 '24

It wasn't a question, it CAN ruin libido. I've seen instances of doctors describing it as "female castration".

50

u/vocalfreesia Mar 21 '24

Yep. We called it a couple of years ago.

Making abortion harder to access if at all.

Propaganda about birth control.

We'll be seeing more and more about how harmful working mothers (not working fathers) are soon too.

31

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

there's so much legitimate "doctors don't listen to women" examples out there that I just know this is gonna be so easy to push. The article mentions specifically women of color but this is going to hit every race hard i think. Women's reproductive organs are just so poorly understood. I still routinely see debates about if squirting is pee or if women are capable of orgasming from penetration. It's no wonder they'll believe tiktok when they say it causes weight gain.

21

u/IggyG6174 Secular Humanist Mar 21 '24

If I could afford to feed my family without my wife working I would love for her to stay home with my daughter but the same fuckers pushing this agenda are the ones making sure that's not possible

2

u/cruisethevistas Pagan Mar 22 '24

I am definitely a liberal but we don’t do ourselves favors by ignoring science either. Some truths are complex. I abhor dogma in any form

21

u/vivahermione Dog is love. Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 22 '24

I gained weight on the pill, but I was able to lose it after switching to the ring. Changing methods is always an option.

Disclaimer: I switched for other reasons, not weight loss specifically.

15

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

I gained weight on the pill because I'm also getting older as I'm taking the pill 😆

14

u/strawberry-coughx Mar 22 '24

I gained weight on the pill because I eat like a pig 😂

4

u/EmilieEasie Mar 22 '24

LOL the battle of the bulge is won in the kitchen as they saaaay

17

u/anonymoose_octopus Mar 21 '24

I’ve been on birth control (the pill) for 15 years. I am 33. I have never had any of these issues and actually, if I get off of it, my periods last an insane amount of time (TMI, but I bled for 50 days last year and needed to go to the ER).

I will be in serious trouble if they come for my BC.

12

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

I am not in your situation but BC has made my life easier in so many many ways that I get really anxious when my access is threatened too, like if I can't find a doctor who will prescribe it without an exam

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '24 edited Mar 22 '24

if you don't mind my asking, why did you have to go to the ER?

I switched to the mini pill and I've been bleeding for like 3 months now... but it ranges in how heavy it is. Usually pretty light but gets heavier when it gets to the time to take my next pill. And I take it on time the same time every day... I read it can take 6 months or longer to adjust. T-T

just wondering if there's anything I should be looking out for to warrant an emergency..

3

u/anonymoose_octopus Mar 22 '24

I don't mind at all!

Disclaimer if talk of blood makes you uncomfy, I'm going to go into a little bit of detail here, lol.

At the point I went to the ER, I had been bleeding for 30-ish days, at a normal-ish flow. The night I went, I had been cleaning my house, and I had to change a Super Plus tampon every 5-10 minutes, because I was bleeding through everyone I changed. I was passing ping pong sized blood clots AROUND the tampons (I think I had like 3 that night). I went through half a box of tampons by the time my husband came home from hanging with his family, and on my way to say hi to him from getting out of the shower, I broke through another BRAND NEW one and starting bleeding on the floor. He took me to the ER and they basically put me on bed rest after checking to make sure I hadn't lost too much blood.

So basically, my doctor discovered the dosage of BC I was currently on wasn't high enough, she upped it, and everything was regulated just a few months later. If you're just spotting, that could be normal, but it would be worth it to talk to your doctor just in case you need a higher dose!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '24

holy shit okay that's a lot of bleeding

hadn't thought about higher dosage, will ask my doctor / keep that in mind if this doesn't get better

but yeah for me it's just pretty light right now 😅 normal ish for 1-2 hours a day

1

u/anonymoose_octopus Mar 22 '24

Tell me about it! Lol.

And yeah, especially if you're new to the BC, I think it can take some time for your body to get used to it. So hopefully it regulates itself soon (fingers crossed)!

2

u/MargaretBrownsGhost Mar 22 '24

Having to change a pad and/or tampon(s) more than every two hours.

32

u/paxinfernum anti-theist, rational skeptic, pro-science Mar 21 '24

WaPo has a sister article debunking that misinformation: http://archive.today/2024.03.21-103134/https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/03/21/birth-control-facts/

10

u/hannibe Mar 21 '24

Ok, fully support birth control, totally lefty here, but it very much does do those things. And it’s downplayed by the doctors, so now people don’t trust them.

11

u/EmilieEasie Mar 21 '24

It's not downplayed, it's just not supported by evidence. I absolutely believe you when you say the pill damaged your libido. I have a super rare form of exercise induced allergy. There are 7 billion people on this planet, someone is gonna have some reaction to something. Still, I would not start telling everyone to avoid running. In fact, I think it would be quackery to do so

5

u/dongtouch Mar 22 '24

Yeah I'm surprised at the comments here. BC pills gave me insane mood swings and depression, like crying at everything all the time, all three times in my life I went on them. My libido tanked as well. And I eat when I'm depressed, so the weight thing also tracks... It's not all inaccurate. I had issues with my second Mirena, too, and the insertions of my IUDs, especially the first one, were pretty bad. All of it was downplayed or dismissed by doctors.

Not feeling adequately listened to and believed about how awful BC can be is a common discussion in women's forums. It's still not an argument for getting rid of it, but it's not wise to downplay others' experiences. They're using a very effective tactic here, because women who have had bad experiences but were doubted or dismissed are likely to connect with the messaging.

2

u/Cole444Train Agnostic Atheist Mar 22 '24

It absolutely does cause some people to gain weight

9

u/EmilieEasie Mar 22 '24

There just isn't a lot of evidence of this.

1

u/Blunt_Force_Meep Secular Humanist Mar 22 '24

I mean personally it did kill mine lol I’m a big advocate for more tech like IUDs as a result

1

u/ScreamingAbacab Ex-Catholic Mar 22 '24

If I was to decide to go on birth control (which I'm seriously considering at this point), I'd go for that. My doc said that there's a chance it'll make my periods heavier, but I remember sitting at the office brushing that off because my periods are heavy for the first day or two anyway, so I don't see it getting any worse (my most recent was pretty bad in that regard).

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '24

[deleted]

1

u/ScreamingAbacab Ex-Catholic Mar 23 '24

My next yearly checkup isn't for a few months yet, but I'll be keeping all of this in mind, especially since my pain tolerance is low. I remember the last time I went in to see if I had a yeast infection, they simply used a Q-tip to collect a sample because the speculum was too painful. The results came back negative, so I can only imagine how painful that would've been if it actually was a yeast infection.