Singer-songwriter Lorde, in a May Rolling Stones profile, opened up about her decision to stop taking hormonal birth control after more than 10 years.
She said the sensation of ovulating for the first time in years felt like a drug. The song “Man of the Year” from her 2025 album “Virgin” was written in part as a response to this experience and how it impacted her relationship to her gender.
But there’s a problem: Lorde’s experiences do not reflect the medical reality of birth control.
During a time when the circulation of anti-science rhetoric is altering people’s perceptions of healthcare and decreasing their trust in medicine, her words are misleading at best and dangerous at worst, even if “Man of the Year” was my most-streamed song this summer.
Lorde’s views mirror the growing hesitancy among young women about oral hormonal contraceptives, colloquially referred to as “the pill,” in favor of alternative contraceptive options like fertility awareness methods and natural family planning.
A BMJ study found the use of the pill as contraception among abortion patients in the United Kingdom fell from nearly 19% in 2018 to roughly 11% in 2023. In contrast, the use of fertility awareness methods, such as period tracking apps, to prevent pregnancy rose from 0.4% to 2.5% in the same period.
University of Minnesota human rights master’s student Aidan Thomason said the internet has facilitated the spread of disinformation regarding birth control.
“A lot of it is coming even just from online influencers,” Thomason said. “So people that are just spreading this information online about the negative side effects of birth control.”
Social media content focused on hormonal birth control often highlights the possible consequences of birth control while downplaying its benefits.
One study found roughly 48% of TikTok videos discussing personal experiences of hormonal birth control mentioned discontinuing their use, while a similar study of YouTube videos found 74% of creators mentioned discontinuing the pill.
“We are seeing a lot of messaging of, like, it makes you fundamentally a different person,” Thomason said. “I’ve seen messages that there’s a secret epidemic of women dying from the pill, which is just not true.”
University fourth-year student and Planned Parenthood Generation Action member Britta Pietila said hormonal birth control altered her emotions, and discontinuing the pill helped her feel like herself again.
“It felt like I was just being pumped with all this stuff and I was, I was just going crazy,” Pietila said. “When I got off of it, I was like, ‘Holy crap, I feel like a different person.’”
Pietila said she now prefers condoms for contraception, citing displeasure with taking medication that alters her body.
“That stuff scares me because it changes you and, like, your brain and all this stuff,” Pietila said. “We’re already consuming so much crap from all the stuff that’s in our food and our water and all this”.
Concern over what enters your body is a common talking point of the Make America Healthy Again movement, spearheaded by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The movement’s goals include decreasing the prevalence of chemicals in food, promoting alternative forms of medicine and examining how vaccines and other medical treatments affect our bodies.
The movement helped spread significant pieces of medical misinformation, such as the supposed health benefits of raw milk and the myth that taking Tylenol during pregnancy can increase the odds of having a baby with autism.
“You have Robert F. Kennedy in the position of health and human services secretary being able to spread misinformation from a pretty high level,” Thomason said.
It’s no surprise that MAHA has taken a critical stance on the pill.
Casey Means, another prominent figure in the MAHA movement and President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Surgeon General, spoke with Tucker Carlson about the inherent dangers of altering our hormone cycles through the pill.
Instead, MAHA promotes what they deem as natural pregnancy prevention methods. It’s worth noting that these natural forms of contraception are far less reliable than hormonal contraception and long-acting reversible contraception methods like IUDs.
As the MAHA movement gains social and political capital, its ability to propagate medical misinformation increases. Lorde even admitted her decision to go off the pill was likely influenced by right-wing influencers.
The reality is that the pill is a relatively safe and highly effective method of contraception.
Common concerns that birth control impacts women’s attraction to men, gender identity or fertility are largely unfounded.
I have been on the pill for over two years and have never experienced symptoms beyond lighter periods, a more-than-welcome consequence.
Thomason said she takes the pill to treat endometriosis, as it’s currently the least invasive treatment option.
Other benefits of the pill include clearer skin, less intense period cramps and migraines, decreased risk of certain cancers and, of course, pregnancy prevention.
But you don’t hear about these stories.
“Those positive benefits of the pill, even though the negative side effects are very real, are not discussed at all in these conversations,” Thomason said.
I believe Pietila, Lorde and all other women when they share their negative experiences with the pill. Its side effects, including increased stress and weight gain, do exist, as with all medications, and women deserve to be heard and trusted when they express concerns to their doctors.
However, fearmongering helps nobody.
In a political landscape that encourages distrust of medical experts and scientifically supported treatment, it is important to uplift the positive impacts of modern medicine — and that includes hormonal birth control.
