Physicians say they’re seeing an explosion of birth-control misinformation online targeting a vulnerable demographic: people in their teens and early 20s who are more likely to believe what they see on their phones because of algorithms that feed them a stream of videos reinforcing messages often divorced from scientific evidence. While doctors say hormonal contraception — which includes birth-control pills and intrauterine devices (IUDs) — is safe and effective, they worry the profession’s long-standing lack of transparency about some of the serious but rare side effects has left many patients seeking information from unqualified online communities.
It does have some very real side effects, and it does have some quite rare ones which are incredibly dangerous. But being pregnant has much worse side effects and a much much higher risk of lethality.
The big difference is that it’s actually keeping people off birth control rather than shifting women to the minipill if they actually have problems.
There are also multiple forms of birth control for women, and most people can find one that works well for them.