Dangerous Trend: TikTok Influencers Giving Inaccurate Birth Control Advice

Teenagers spend nearly five hours on TikTok, Instagram and other social media each day, but they’re not just watching animal stunts, dreamy celebrities and dorm-room decor hacks. They’re also learning about birth control — from influencers who have no medical training.

As a result, women 20 and under are using less reliable, old-school birth control techniques. Instead of choosing effective hormonal-based methods like the pill, they’re gambling on less trustworthy ones such as the rhythm method and early withdrawal.

This comes as many states have banned abortions after six weeks, when most women don’t even know they are pregnant.

Check for Credentials

Social media influencers are often non-medical personalities who post videos, photos and words about various topics, including sex and birth control. Girls are likely to see such posts repeatedly for several years before they’re sexually active and visit a gynecologist, leading to misinformation and misconceptions.

The influencers establish trust and a feeling of intimacy. They come across as authentic, autonomous and accessible — independent from political and commercial interests — so people tend to trust them. Of the influencers who discuss birth control, nearly 75 percent on YouTube and 49 percent on TikTok talked about discontinuing hormonal methods. They base their advice on personal experiences or beliefs, not scientific evidence.

Young female influencers often address the downsides of birth control pills and other hormone-based contraception methods — implants, injections, patches, rings and certain IUDs. Like all medications, these products have potential side effects and aren’t the best choice for everyone. Some women get headaches, nausea or sore breasts until their bodies adjust.

In addition, the influencers cast doubt on doctors’ ethics, questioning, for example, whether practitioners receive kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers. (They do not. Healthcare institutions have anti-kickback rules in place.) They fail to mention that influencers often make money from posts “sponsored” by various companies and by people watching their videos.

Influencers Get the Facts Wrong

When social media influencers share inaccurate information, their followers might get scared off instead of seeking the facts. Here’s what you need to know:

• Birth control pills do not cause weight gain. You won’t put on five or 10 pounds from taking the pill. Of all the hormonal birth control methods, only medroxyprogesterone acetate might lead to extra weight. It’s an injection made with progestin that you’d receive four times a year. So don’t choose that if your waistline is a concern. You have plenty of other options.
• Birth control pills do not cause mental health issues. Influencers blame mood swings, mood disorders, and other emotional or psychiatric challenges on the pill, but there is no connection.
• Birth control pills will not hurt your chances of getting pregnant later. Not a single study has shown these birth control methods to cause infertility.
• Birth control pills can increase your chances of developing cancer. The facts here are mixed. Going on the pill will reduce your chances of having ovarian, colon and endometrial cancer, but your chances for cervical and breast cancers will rise slightly.
• Birth control pills will cause blood clots. That’s false if you’re young and healthy. The chance will rise a bit if you smoke, are obese or are over 35; in that case, switch to a progestin-only mini-pill or an IUD.

Alternatives Are Not as Reliable

If you have sexual relations with a man, you face a chance of conceiving a child. Avoid pregnancy by choosing a form of birth control that is extremely effective instead of one that could leave you pregnant.

Anti-pill influencers recommend alternatives your great-grandmother might have used before better options existed. Nonhormonal contraceptives (other than implants, IUDs and surgery) are a full 10 percent less effective on their own than the others. Individually, they fail 12 percent to 28 percent of the time. Some have inherent risks involved; for example, male condoms can rip or fall off during intercourse, making them useless. Feel free to use these methods in addition to the scientifically proven ones, but don’t use them instead.

• The rhythm method — Fails 24 percent of the time
• Male condom — Fails 18 percent of the time
• Female condom — Fails 21 percent of the time
• Sponge — Fails 12 percent to 24 percent of the time
• Early withdrawal — Fails 22 percent of the time
• Spermicide — Fails 28 percent of the time

By contrast, when used correctly, hormonal birth control methods fail much less often:

• Birth control pills, patches and vaginal rings — Fail 9 percent of the time
• Injections  — Fail 6 percent of the time
• IUD and implants — Fail under 1 percent of the time

Listen to science. To avoid pregnancy, use products that work. You have many options, so visit a gynecologist, midwife or nurse practitioner for advice based on what’s right for you.

If you enjoy learning from social media sources, that’s great. Instead of following influencers for birth control advice, fill your feed with posts by doctors, nurses and institutions that have solid medical credentials.