• Help & Advice
  • Find a Service
    Close icon
Hand holding a pack of pills

Can we talk about the pill? 

As an RSE teacher, a lot of my time is spent talking to young people about contraception and perhaps an equal amount of time is spent dispelling the flood of myths and misinformation about it. Especially when it comes to the pill.  

If you’d have asked me my opinion on the pill when I was a teenager myself, I was staunchly against it – being fresh out of having a negative experience on it myself.  

Now, as a healthcare worker with a duty to give unbiased, professional advice to young people, I find myself holding space for two truths: there is a flood of misinformation and dangerous myths out there about the pill. At the same time, because of biases in our medical system, young people (like myself when I was a teenager) are having unnecessarily negative experiences of hormonal contraception and we need to listen to them.  

Navigating these two truths can feel like a minefield. But it’s crucial to do so without shutting young people’s questions down.  

Misinformation and Myths 

  • Does the pill make you gain weight? 
  • Does the pill make you go crazy? 
  • Does the pill change who you’re attracted to? 

These are just some of the questions I get about the pill.

When I ask where they’ve heard about this, 9/10 times the answer is Tiktok. 

It might seem easiest to just dismiss TikTok as an unreliable source of information and disregard these questions as myths. But it’s not that simple. In fact, the reason a lot of these issues resonate with people is because they chime with their own experiences.  

From Teenager to Teacher 

When I was a teenager, if someone told me they were depressed my first question would be: “Are you on the pill? Come off it.” 

This was based on my own experience having been prescribed the pill to help with periods, and then as contraception, between the ages of 14-16. My memory of being on it is blurry, but I distinctly remember some extreme side effects: random heavy bleeding, severe depression that triggered panic attacks. When I told my doctor, I was switched between different types and doses, but nothing helped. 

Fortunately, my sister who is a GP recommended I come off it and within two days I felt a lift in my mood. Of course, my mental health wasn’t “cured,” and there were multiple factors to my depression. But it was clear that the way the pill affected me personally was a significant factor. 

Around that time, I started seeing news articles and social media posts from other young women sharing their experiences of mental health issues linked to the pill. I felt validated—but also angry. It seemed like the medical community was offering a grim choice: “Would you prefer to be depressed or pregnant?” A 2016 article titled Women Talk About How the Pill Completely F***** Them summed up how many of us felt. 

Balancing Perspectives: The Truths and Myths 

So when I hear young people’s fear around contraception, I understand it. But here’s another truth: for many people, the pill works well. For conditions like PCOS, it can be life-changing.  

The risk of pregnancy persists, and worrying about it can stop people from having a positive experience of sex. As someone who wants to protect young people, I also want to help them avoid unplanned pregnancy.  

But this shouldn’t have to be at the cost of enduring negative side-effects. Accepting a level of discomfort, being grateful for what we do have (at least we’re not pregnant!) and not criticising what we’ve got is something that has plagued women who ask for better treatment since the dawn of time. But it’s okay for us to demand better from medicine: to strive for a world where reproductive health is free from bias, where care is person-centred, and where people are empowered to make informed decisions for their own bodies. 

Practical Advice for Young People 

So, how can young people make informed decisions?  

I always tell young people that choosing birth control is a bit like going to the hairdresser.

You should do some research, have an idea of what you might want, and then be open to the expertise of professionals. If they tell you that bleaching your hair will make it fall out, don’t bleach your hair. The same goes for medical advice—be open to the fact they’re the expert in their field, and you’re also the expert on your own body. If something isn’t sitting right with you, follow that feeling.  

QUIZ

Which contraception method is best for you?

Take the quiz

Self-advocacy can be really hard, especially if you already face barriers to talking about contraception like long waiting times, family beliefs, or your own worry. There’s nothing wrong with writing a script of what you want to say in advance, or requesting a different doctor if you don’t feel listened to by your current one. 

Another way I recommend young people to stay in tune with your body is to keep a diary. Teenagers, especially, are dealing with so much: hormone fluctuations, stress, sleepless nights, hangovers, sexual desires (or lack thereof). It can be hard to know whether the pill is affecting your mood or if it’s just part of the whirlwind of teenage life. Writing it down helps track patterns and figure out what’s causing what. 

The Importance of Listening and Medical Progress 

One of the most frustrating parts of my experience was feeling like I wasn’t being listened to. Young women and gender non-conforming folks, especially, often feel ignored when they express concerns about their bodies. Because accepting a level of pain and discomfort is taught as the norm within a patriarchal society—from uncomfortable underwired bras that you’ll ‘get used to’, to learning to pluck your eyebrows. That’s why I make sure to listen carefully to the young people I work with. I won’t dismiss their feelings or laugh them off, because learning to tune back into discomfort, and say no to it, is a radical step towards regaining power over our bodies.

Instead, we’ll work together to debunk myths and find out what’s true for them. 

Thankfully, the medical field is progressing. More and more professionals are encouraging patients to take control of their own health. 

Conclusion: Navigating Between Extremes 

In the end, we don’t want young people to be driven by fear. Whether it’s fear-mongering pseudoscience from the far-right or fear of being ignored by doctors, both are harmful.  

My work at Brook is all about helping young people develop critical thinking skills in a way that is going to serve their lives. Relationships and sexuality are inherently different for every person–and that’s wonderful! There’s no way I could teach each young person the ‘right’ way to do it.  

Instead, we need to encourage critical thinking, informed decision-making, and personal choice. If the pill doesn’t suit someone, they should feel comfortable exploring other options like the hormonal coil, which might have fewer side effects for some people, or – if used properly – good old-fashioned condoms.  

Do you teach RSE?

Brook has free resources, online courses, and education sessions to support you to deliver contraception lessons that are meaningful and high-quality.

Browse contraception lesson resources
, ,
Rutendo standing next to a street sign in Zimbabwe. The ground is dry and there are lots of trees.
,

From Zimbabwe to Southend: How my work in HIV prevention healed me

Rutendo Chitiga is a Health Promotion Coordinator at Brook, currently working on a HIV Prevention contract in Southend-on-Sea. In this blog, Ru explains why this work is so important to…

,

5 tips for managing your mental health following a HIV diagnosis 

For #SHW24 we’re exploring the links between mental health and sexual health. In this blog, Ellie Harrison, a Positive Voices speaker for Terrence Higgins Trust, shares her tips for managing…

Why we need better representation of people with learning disabilities

For Sexual Health Week 2020 and throughout September, Brook is celebrating the introduction of mandatory RSE in all schools in England. In this blog, Richard Lawrence, Project Support Assistant at…