Any hormonal method changes your hormone profile. Whether this is for better or for worse depends ENTIRELY on your individual body. Some bodies naturally have more estrogen and would be happier with less, some people need progesterone for sleep and a healthy mood while for others any tiny fluctuation in that shit makes them feel insane (me). Everyone has a different rate at which they metabolize hormones, how they respond to metabolites, and what their body produces naturally.
Trans people on HRT will know exactly what I’m talking about here. There are transmascs who felt like shit with estrogen in their bodies and transfemmes whose depression magically goes away as soon as they start progesterone. Different amounts, delivery methods, and combinations of estrogen/progesterone/testosterone work for each individual and it can take years to figure out what that is. It's exactly the same for those of us with uteruses who take hormones. If you’re taking birth control for any other reason than to prevent pregnancy, you’re basically doing HRT in search of a hormone profile that works for you. Uteruses will hijack your entire body and make it work for reproduction and almost nothing else. We are not our ancestors who spent most of their lives either pregnant or breastfeeding. Some hormones can make your menstrual cycle go away! Yes that’s healthy and no there is no reason to have like 500 periods in your life.
On top of that there are many different progestins and formulations with synthetic estrogens and they all have different effects. Drospirenone for example, usually makes your acne clear up and decreases blood pressure! Dienogest decreases the amount of estrogen in your body so much that when you first go on it you can get menopause symptoms. Norethindrone has minimal side effects but doesn't stay in your body as long so you have to take your pills at exactly the same time every day. You can get pills that do not have estrogen in them! The pills that do have estrogen in them can cause the same problems that high endogenous estrogen does, like increasing the chance of cancer and blood clots. If you take one that doesn’t have estrogen in it, you can get side effects related to having not enough estrogen like impacted bone mineral density and lowered chance of estrogen responsive cancers. On top of THAT the worst symptoms like migraines, acne, and mood changes are going to happen when there is fluctuation of sex hormones and it can take up to 3 months for your body to get used to the new hormone profile.
There are IUDs that release a lower amount of progestins right where it’s needed in order to minimize side effects while being super effective at preventing pregnancy, there's an arm implant that lasts 3 years, there's even a shot you can get every 3 months. These methods are the most recommended by doctors because they’re the most effective at preventing pregnancy. They’re the most effective because you can’t use them wrong. They also work wonders for a lot of people! But some bodies simply do not like them! And that’s ok!
Speaking of doctors, you have to understand how they operate. They’re looking at studies which are very inefficient at observing and establishing the causes of side effects when experiences vary so widely. Their goal is to treat whatever single issue you ask them to. If you go to a gyno and say “hey I want to not get pregnant” they’re going to say “ok, the best way to do that is with an IUD” and they’ll be correct. What they don’t care about is whether it changes your hormone profile in a way that sucks for you. Even if your doctor is up to date on the scientific literature, they usually just have a list that they’ll try in order until they find something you tolerate. There is no grand conspiracy to abuse women or sell more IUDs, doctors are largely just sort of shitty and doing their job on auto-pilot.
ALL THIS TO SAY birth control is not poison and people who have bad experiences with it deserve to be heard. It’s ok to talk about how much doctors suck and to say bad things about birth control. Some people love their IUDs, some people love their pills, and some people are better off not taking any hormones at all. Condoms and fertility awareness and stuff (or getting your partner to take hormones instead) will be a better alternative for people who don’t want to alter their body’s natural cycle. Meanwhile, some of us are much better off not having a menstrual cycle at all. Either one is fine and does not need to be moralized!
There should be no pressure to use birth control. There should be no pressure to NOT use birth control. It’s a personal choice with many variables.
IMPORTANTLY: Fearmongering and lying about important medical information is bad! please don’t do that!
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