Young women are being urged ditch hormonal birth control under TikTok‘s newest health trend.
Videos highlighting the benefits of switching to ‘natural’ contraception have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
Users claim the pill, and others forms of hormonal contraception, have left them feeling ‘ugly’. Others have blamed the birth control for weight gain and depression.
But medics said the trend was ‘worrying’ and raised concerns over the effectiveness of the ‘back to nature’ movement, as it has been called.
Many women are turning to apps that use temperature data to determine when they are likely to be fertile — and therefore need to use protection.
User @breakupwithbirthcontrol also took to TikTok telling her followers: ‘I have used the fertility awareness method for the last five years of my life to successfully prevent unwanted pregnancy, to heal my PMS, to finally lose my stubborn belly fat and to stop having such intense mood swings and depression and anxiety’
In another video, TikTok user @angelinanicollle wrote ‘when you thought you were ugly, hated yourself, had zero sex drive and felt like a robot everyday but you realized it was just because you were on birth control’. Meanwhile one content creator @leeann5.oh shared photos of herself while using birth control and after stopping taking the pill. ‘On birth control, unable to control my weight. So unhappy/depressed’, she wrote
TikTok users also commented underneath videos about hormonal birth control pills adding they were ‘getting fat because of the pill’ and ‘gaining so much weight’
Yet these are not concrete, with women reporting unwanted pregnancies after such apps failed to correctly map their menstrual cycle.
The hashtag #gettingoffbirthcontrol has racked up over seven million views on TikTok.
One video, which has been viewed 1.1m times, claims natural family planning methods are 98 per cent effective at preventing pregnancy.
Another clip, posted from the account @pcos.teacher, states: ‘Hormonal contraception has never agreed with my body. I’ve been on five to six types of birth control and during this period, I developed cystic acne, I put on a lot of weight and it really affected my mood and libido negatively.’
She also provided a link to the fertility app Natural Cycles, writing: ‘Use code PCOS for 20 per cent off your subscription (link in bio). Natural Cycles is for 18+ and does not protect against STIs’.
Women using the app need to measure their temperature most days and input the results into the app, which uses an algorithm to calculate their fertility.
It identifies ‘green days’, when a woman is unlikely to fall pregnant, and ‘red days’ when contraception would be needed.
But Dr Janet Barter, chair and president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, told the BBC’s Today Programme that patients being ‘influenced’ by contraception information on social media is ‘something that’s been worrying us for a while’.
She added: ‘Every day I speak to women who are absolutely terrified of using hormonal contraception.
‘Terrified to start, worrying about whether they should come off it, because they’re hearing information that it’s risky or that it’s going to give them side effects.
‘We’re always also keen for there to be more research into hormonal contraception.
‘But what we do know is that it’s extremely safe. So, the pill for example has probably had more research on its safety than any other tablet that you might swallow.’
Side effects of the pill including nausea, breast tenderness or enlargement, headaches, weight gain, missed periods, mood changes, decreased sex drive and vaginal discharge, have long been shared.
Rarer side effects however also include blood clots, high blood pressure, liver tumours and even a raised risk of breast cancer.
But Dr Barter added: ‘We also know about its [the pill’s] effectiveness and we know that any method of hormonal contraception – so that’s the pill but also the patch, vaginal ring, the hormonal IUD, the implant – we know exactly their effectiveness, we know a lot about their side effects.
‘We do know that some women do suffer from mood changes or want another method of contraception.
‘But it’s so important that they have the chance to have a conversation with a healthcare professional, so they can work out what the problem is and what they could do instead.’
Yet recent TikTok videos include @breakupwithbirthcontrol who told her followers: ‘I have used the fertility awareness method for the last five years of my life to successfully prevent unwanted pregnancy, to heal my PMS, to finally lose my stubborn belly fat and to stop having such intense mood swings and depression and anxiety.’
In another video with over 17,000 views, TikTok user @angelinanicollle wrote ‘when you thought you were ugly, hated yourself, had zero sex drive and felt like a robot everyday but you realized it was just because you were on birth control’.
Meanwhile, another TikTok account @leeann5.oh shared photos of herself while using birth control and after stopping taking the pill.
‘On birth control, unable to control my weight. So unhappy/depressed’, she wrote.
Studies show that hormonal contraception itself doesn’t cause weight gain. However, it can increase appetite in some women, which may see them eat more.
The NHS notes that the natural fertility awareness method of contraception — which can also include measuring cycle length and changes to cervical secretions — can be up to 99 per cent effective if followed consistently and correctly.
‘Natural family planning can be very effective if it’s done perfectly,’ Dr Barter noted.
‘But doing it perfectly involves a huge amount of input. So, the temperature can be affected by all sorts of things, so travel, changes to your sleep pattern, if you’re not well that can affect your temperature change,’ she added.
‘Not everybody logs their periods every month and of course, it involves not having sex on the days when it’s not safe to have sex, which is around ovulation, which is the time that most women feel like having sex.
‘And if in fact you have sex, but you protect yourself with a condom, then the effectiveness of that is only as good as the effectiveness of the condom.’
‘Hormonal contraception has never agreed with my body. I’ve been on five to six types of birth control and during this period, I developed cystic acne, I put on a lot of weight and it really affected my mood and libido negatively,’ another TikTok user @pcos.teacher said. In the video she advertised the app ‘Natural Cycles’. ‘Use code PCOS for 20% off your subscription (link in bio). Natural Cycles is for 18+ and does not protect against STIs’, she wrote
![Side effects of the pill including nausea, breast tenderness or enlargement, headaches, weight gain, missed periods, mood changes, decreased sex drive and vaginal discharge, have long been shared. Rarer side effects however also include blood clots, high blood pressure, liver tumours and even a raised risk of breast cancer. But Dr Barter added: 'We also know about its [the pill's] effectiveness and we know that any method of hormonal contraception – so that's the pill but also the patch, vaginal ring, the hormonal IUD, the implant – we know exactly their effectiveness, we know a lot about their side effects](https://usercontent.one/wp/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1682515575_987_Warning-over-new-TikTok-trend-urging-women-to-quit-the.jpg?media=1731584300)
Side effects of the pill including nausea, breast tenderness or enlargement, headaches, weight gain, missed periods, mood changes, decreased sex drive and vaginal discharge, have long been shared. Rarer side effects however also include blood clots, high blood pressure, liver tumours and even a raised risk of breast cancer. But Dr Barter added: ‘We also know about its [the pill’s] effectiveness and we know that any method of hormonal contraception – so that’s the pill but also the patch, vaginal ring, the hormonal IUD, the implant – we know exactly their effectiveness, we know a lot about their side effects
The growing interest in ‘natural’, ‘hormone-free’ and ‘non-invasive’ methods of preventing pregnancy comes after the UK began offering the Pill over-the-counter contraception in the UK. The move, which was announced in 2021, was hailed as a ‘landmark’ moment. Fertility apps including Natural Cycles, Flo and Clue, claim to have millions of users worldwide. But in 2018, a Facebook advert for Natural Cycles was banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, after it claimed that it was ‘highly accurate’ and ‘provided a clinically tested alternative to other birth control methods’ were found to be misleading
She said: ‘So, we would feel that these methods are good if you’re someone for whom pregnancy wouldn’t be a disaster.
‘But for each woman, you have to look at your priorities at this particular point in your life and think about what’s most important.
‘If not getting pregnant is the most important thing, then one of these apps probably isn’t for you.’
The growing interest in ‘natural’, ‘hormone-free’ and ‘non-invasive’ methods of preventing pregnancy comes after the UK began offering the Pill over-the-counter contraception in the UK. The move, which was announced in 2021, was hailed as a ‘landmark’ moment.
Fertility apps including Natural Cycles, Flo and Clue, claim to have millions of users worldwide.
But in 2018, a Facebook advert for Natural Cycles was banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, after it claimed that it was ‘highly accurate’ and ‘provided a clinically tested alternative to other birth control methods’ were found to be misleading.
Today, the Swedish based app, which costs £69.99 a year, claims to be 93 per cent effective with typical use and 98 per cent effective with perfect use.
For comparison, with perfect use, condoms are 98 per cent effective, while the Pill, implant, IUS and IUD are 99 per cent effective, according to the NHS.
Natural Cycles allows its users to either plan a pregnancy or prevent it, with prevention the most popular use among young women.
While it was the first birth control app cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US in 2018 and certified in the European Union in 2017, in the UK the NHS does not recommend the app as a birth control method.
In 2017, Swedish health officials also raised concerns after 37 women at one of the country’s biggest hospitals were said to have sought a termination after all allegedly fell pregnant while using the app.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) advises the contraceptive method with the lowest failure rate for typical used to be the implant, with a failure rate of just 0.1 per cent.
This is followed by male vasectomy, with a failure rate of 0.15 per cent and the hormonal implant which has a failure rate of 0.7 per cent.
According to the service, the pill has a failure rate of seven per cent, and condoms a failure rate of either 13 or 21 per cent, depending on if you are using male or female versions.
BPAS puts the fertility awareness method, which is similar to the idea behind Natural Cycles, at around a 15 per cent chance of failure.
