Social media’s reckoning with #naturalbirthcontrol

Natural birth control is having a moment—on TikTok, of all places. Under the hashtags #naturalbirthcontrol and #gettingoffbirthcontrol in particular, videos of women vocalizing their concerns about hormonal birth control, its dangerous side effects, and the frustration of doctors unwilling to listen to those concerns, have been gaining traction with tens of thousands of views, likes, and comments. Given that the predominant media narrative has historically and uncritically celebrated hormonal birth control as a necessary tool for women’s empowerment, it’s a pleasant surprise to see online content realistically portraying hormonal birth control as bad for women gaining bandwidth. 

Perhaps even more interestingly, some mainstream media sources have reported on the trend. The range of responses by the media, from grudging acknowledgement, to downplaying, to outright denial of any truth in what women are saying, reflects the continued sensitivity to reproductive health-related topics in the news cycle, and it also sheds light on the reality of what proponents of fertility awareness methods and holistic women’s health face, as our society reckons with what women’s rights are and what advocating for them means.

What women are saying about birth control on social media

This past summer and fall, natural birth control has been trending on social media, with 43.5 million views for the hashtag #naturalbirthcontrol and 3.8 million views for #gettingoffbirthcontrol on TikTok. Many videos seek to educate women about their cycles; they advocate for the ability to plan for pregnancy without hormonal birth control, either through predicting windows of fertility or alternative, non-hormonal methods of preventing pregnancy. Stories abound of the change in quality of life before and after going off birth control. At the same time, there has been a rise in accounts promoting fertility awareness methods (FAM) and natural family planning, with the respective hashtags garnering 32.3 million views and 15 million views. These videos detail the different methods of tracking your cycle, and how to read the different signals your body gives you at various phases. 

Why is #naturalbirthcontrol blowing up TikTok?

On TikTok, once content starts gaining popularity, it can shoot to viral status even more rapidly than on other social platforms because the app’s algorithm favors what people are watching and interacting with, suggesting it on other users’ “For You” pages. This in turn helps content rack up even more views, which means it gets suggested more often in a perpetuating cycle. 

Additionally, TikTok has become a source for news and education as much as entertainment, as many young people turn to it as a search engine, looking for information from influencers and their peers on specific topics. A Pew Research Center poll conducted during the summer of 2022 found that 26% of 18-29 year olds considered TikTok a news source. TikTok is also well known for developing subcultures—self-contained communities that form around a similar belief or interest in a topic—because once you watch one video on a topic, it “feeds” you more on that same topic. 

#Gettingoffbirthcontrol is a trend that’s bigger than TikTok

But this is one topic that isn’t simply a self-contained Tiktok subculture. Conversations about birth control and fertility awareness are ramping up across social media, podcasts, and other creative platforms. In an article published on a popular Australian news site, one writer shared the results of an informal poll among her own followers on Instagram in which she asked about their reasons for avoiding going to the doctor. The most common responses she received were “an obsession with birth control and being shamed because of their weight.” She relates several stories that women shared of their doctors dismissing health concerns, blaming any symptoms on their weight, and refusing to listen to their patients’ hesitations with certain approaches to reproductive health–including using birth control. 

When it comes to birth control, many women don’t think their doctors are listening to them

The short article sheds light on the issue at the core of these experiences: “what [these women] struggled with was not being told to lose weight, but rather how doctors failed to listen to them.” Doctors responding to these women’s health concerns with a single-minded approach that didn’t align with their values or situations, or even flatly dismissing their reasons for seeking treatment, sparked frustration and resentment among many of the women polled. 

Ironically, most of the respondents reported that these interactions with their healthcare providers had damaged their psychological health—and potentially their physical health too—as these encounters left the women feeling gaslit, which eroded their trust and caused them to delay future visits to a doctor: “All that sort of disrespect to my life choices makes me just give up on trying to fix my insides,” one woman responded. 

Refusing to listen to patients’ concerns about either the symptoms they are experiencing or the treatments that have been suggested should be unacceptable in any case. Yet it is all too common when it comes to birth control, which is especially alarming because the side effects and risks of birth control are well-documented, not speculative. Doctors who continue to push birth control every time a patient comes into their office regardless of the reason, to downplay the risks associated with it, and to deride women who express concerns about the side effects and request information about alternatives, represent a medical system that fails to properly and honestly care for women. So why do medical providers still insist on prescribing birth control at every opportunity?

Gaslighting is prevalent in mainstream media responses to the #naturalbirthcontrol trend and online critiques of hormonal birth control 

Unfortunately, the media’s response to #naturalbirthcontrol, #gettingoffbirthcontrol, and other fertility awareness trends on social platforms presents a parallel to what many individual women experience in their interactions with doctors. This past summer and fall, a slew of articles from major news outlets addressed the surge in interest around getting off hormonal birth control and the quest for forms of natural birth control, frequently supported by the warning voices of OB/GYNs and professors who offer their own takes on the trend. These articles use a variety of gaslighting tactics that all serve to deter women from taking control of their fertility. 

Gaslighting tactic #1: Accusations of fearmongering

Some suggest that concerns around birth control are illegitimate because they are rooted in fear of hormones–painting the issue as boiling down to birth control being “not natural.” Of course, exposing the body to synthetic hormones for years is a valid cause for concern for many people, and pretending that the majority of those who are against birth control oppose it merely for the sake of promoting some kind of “all-natural lifestyle” is a gross oversimplification and misrepresentation of an earnest interest in avoiding unnecessary interventions that might actually be detrimental to one’s health. This approach tends to come along with doubling down on the narrative that birth control is safe and well-researched, and that claims about its negative effects are false or misunderstood. And, of course, they fail to mention that birth control is not a drug that actually treats the underlying causes of any menstrual health-related issue, but serves to shut down a normal female bodily function (the menstrual cycle). 

Gaslighting tactic #2: Claiming that fertility awareness methods are too time-consuming and hard to learn

Many articles express concerns about the added time and effort it takes to practice fertility awareness methods perfectly, and the reduced effectiveness when they are practiced imperfectly (while failing to point out that the same is true of pharmaceutical birth control). These sources tend to highlight the broader implications of unplanned pregnancies in light of reduced access to abortions since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Sometimes, even naked disgust is expressed for “privileged” TikTok content creators “peddling” fertility awareness-based methods or methods of natural family planning, which necessarily require collaboration between partners to avoid having children—falsely (and paternalistically) implying that anyone without an advanced education or a perfect relationship could possibly benefit from using these methods.

Gaslighting claim #3: If you oppose abortion, you can’t critique birth control

This article from the Daily Dot perhaps best illustrates the entanglement of promoting fertility awareness with the hotly contested, politicized topics of abortion, health care, religion, and feminism. Interestingly, the author acknowledges birth control’s well-documented side effects, their being severe enough to cause a third of women to stop using them within a year, the failure of doctors to take them seriously, and the lack of research into “new and improved forms of hormonal birth control.” Yet she still manages to accuse FAM influencers of feeding into TikTok’s reputation for misinformation simply by sharing their personal testimonials, and claims promoters of fertility awareness are taking advantage of women by encouraging their followers to quit hormonal birth control. 

Her deepest concern, however, is the affiliation between those raising awareness about hormonal birth control and “religious and anti-abortion activism”—Catholics and other Christians who have, in her mind, co-opted feminist language to advance their own pro-life agendas. At the heart of this argument is a rigid insistence that to be pro-life and to be a genuine advocate for women are mutually exclusive. This argument reflects the extreme polarization of our social landscape in which—rather than seeking common ground—even those who agree that hormonal birth control is objectively bad for women will seek to silence those who don’t align with them on other issues concerning sexuality and reproduction. 

Misconceptions continue, but social media conversations have the potential to positively impact women’s healthcare 

Sadly, the idea that women’s ability to live a free and fulfilling life depends on their being able to prevent and terminate pregnancies is deeply ingrained in our social fabric. This explains the still-widespread resistance to what an abundance of scientific studies and women’s own experiences are telling us: that birth control is harmful to women’s physical and emotional health, and it is certainly not the linchpin to their happiness and success. The groundswell of women sharing their experiences about #naturalbirthcontrol and #gettingoffbirthcontrol on TikTok and other social platforms is gradually chipping away at the long-held acceptance of hormonal birth control as a pillar of women’s empowerment. The backlash against this grassroots movement from legacy media and elite institutions is troubling, but not altogether surprising. 

Crucially, this shifting perspective needs to extend beyond social circles to the powerful sphere of medicine in order for women to finally receive the care they deserve from their doctors. Building upon the current momentum on social media and elsewhere, educational efforts must reach ever broader audiences of both women and men, so that the narrative of empowerment for women changes and all women are able to receive authentic, holistic care that listens to them and works with—rather than against—their bodies. 

An update on NW’s social media efforts for our readers

In the past year, Natural Womanhood has made a substantial investment in growing our social media influence. Our reach on Instagram is 18 times higher than it was last year, mostly thanks to an aggressive posting strategy which includes harnessing the potential of Instagram tools like stories and reels. Our YouTube channel is also growing with a 600% increase in views so far this year.

With every person reached via social media, we have the potential to teach women the truth about the goodness of their bodies, their cycles, and their fertility–and to inform them about the evidence-based harms of birth control. If you want to help us continue to widen our reach so that more women can learn the truth about birth control and fertility awareness, please consider donating to our year-end fundraising campaign today.

Additional Reading:

FAM-friendly apps to help your teen understand her cycle and learn basic charting

Don’t trust your birth control? FAM helps with family planning confidence

10 reasons to consider getting off birth control and starting fertility awareness instead