Almost all women in their lifetime would have been on some form of contraception for different reasons. Some go on birth control for the obvious reason of reducing the risk of unwanted pregnancy or to help regulate their periods. Other women are prescribed to go on it to manage endometriosis and lower the risk of some cancers.
Contraception is a saving grace to many women, but it does not come without its downsides. For example, although it can regulate your period and prevent pregnancy, it can also cause breakthrough bleeding or spotting (continuous or extended cycle) and in rare cases serious health issues such as blood clots.
The stigma around contraception made me hesitant go on any form of birth control but I decided to try the mini pill as it seemed like the gentlest form of contraception to start with. The mini pill is a hormonal contraception that only contains progestogen which needs to be taken everyday at the same time. This comes with bad side effects such as a breakthrough bleeding, migraines, acne, weight gain and mood changes.
These are some of the symptoms that I personally experienced whilst taking the mini pill. I was advised by my local GP to go it because I have an irregular cycle. Unfortunately, it did not regulate my period and due to this I had to change my prescription three times until I decided to stop taking the mini pill.
Since then, I was contemplating going on the coil, so I did some of my own research. However, one of my biggest mistakes was searching for bad experiences that women have had on the coil through TikTok. Hearing all these awful experiences scared me and made me hesitate to go back on contraception due to the fear that my body would react badly to it.
Eventually after talking with some of my friends who are on the coil and who have not been impacted by it, I decided to get the coil. They helped remind me that every woman’s experience is different and bad side effects are rare cases. But this made me question how many other girls feel or have felt the same as me when thinking of going on birth control. Which is how I came up with the idea of investigating why women might become fearful to go on hormonal contraception and find out if social media plays any part in women’s hesitation.
I found that although there are many resources online that women can access about contraception, none of them reassured me about the safeness of birth control. This is something that I intend to do through my project. I aim to reassure women that while contraception comes with risks, they are rare, and that our bodies take time to adjust to new hormones. Contraception has many benefits and has helped many women, but the lack of coverage regarding this can impact women’s encouragement to go on birth control.
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