So… have you ever heard the saying: “A happy customer tells one friend, an unhappy customer tells everybody”?
We’re noticing that that has an interesting effect on the information people find about, for instance, hormonal birth control methods — especially online. People who have a bad experience with a hormonal method are way more likely to talk about it than people who, say, go on the pill, take it for years, aren’t bothered by side effects, don’t get pregnant until they’re good and ready, and go about their lives. They’re not going to be like, “hmm, I wonder where I can go tell everyone how well birth control pills have worked out for me!”
Don’t get me wrong: this is not to say that some people don’t have fully legit bad experiences with hormonal birth control, even after sticking it out for three months (which is the amount of time it usually takes for any side effects you might have to go away). I’m actually one of them. But for instance, my sister has never had a hint of a problem being on the pill, and we’re biological sisters! Clearly, hormonal birth control affects different people in different ways.
The reason any of this actually matters is that: after sterilization or the IUD, hormonal birth control methods work the best at keeping you not-pregnant. And people who would really, really prefer to stay not-pregnant are best served by the most effective methods available to them.
Anyway. There’s nothing to really do about this – it’s not like people should shut up about their negative experiences or something. It’s more like… it’s just something to keep in mind when you read about individuals’ birth control experiences online, that the people who are happy are probably just not even thinking to mention it. And that it might be worth keeping a “don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it” attitude toward the more effective birth control methods, if the whole “not-pregnant” thing is important to you.
You could also feel free to like or re-blog this if you’re one of the people who’s been quietly happy with a hormonal birth control method – we know there are millions of you out there!
Mary @PPFA