The Pill Is For Women Because Guys ‘Couldn’t Handle The Side Effects’
Have you ever wondered why all hormonal birth control methods are made for women? You probably assumed that it’s because it was easier to formulate a medication that worked with women’s bodies, right?
Well, you’d be wrong. In fact, the two men behind birth control (Gregory Pincus and John Rock) originally made birth control for men. So, why did they end up making the pill for women? Because of the side effects, according to Broadly.
After all, women have to deal with so much shit in life already, why not give them a pill that will increase their chances of clinical depression, weight gain, and ovarian cysts on top of it all?
From Broadly:
Incidentally, Pincus et al. had originally looked at hormonal birth control for men. “It was rejected for men due to the number of side effects,” says Grigg-Spall, “including testicle shrinking.” It was believed women would tolerate side effects better than men, who demanded a better quality of life.
Okay, sure, testicle shrinking doesn’t sound awesome or anything. But does boob swelling sound awesome? What about clinical depression? Or hair loss? Decreased libido sounds great, too!
Like seemingly everything in life, the burden was placed upon women because guys “couldn’t handle it.” Just like child rearing, cooking, cleaning, and anything else that’s not “manly” or “fun.”
The scariest part isn’t that women were given the short end of the stick yet again, but that doctors didn’t share with their patients the true side effects of birth control. This has been happening since 1970, when a journalist named Barbara Seaman wrote The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill. “The book detailed the many side effects of Enovid [the first form of birth control]—anecdotal data doctors knew but withheld from their patients,” according to Broadly.
While you can pull up a list of birth control side effects on the internet today, some doctors will downplay them. She might convince you that everyone experiences the pill differently, and it’s probably something else causing the side effect. She might convince you that condoms and the pull-out method aren’t enough, and that you should consider some form of hormonal birth control. I know because it happened to me.
But in September, Danish researchers officially linked all hormonal forms of birth control to clinical depression, so there’s no hiding it anymore.
While it’s been reported that a male birth control is in the works, we’ll believe it when we see it. In the meantime, make the birth control decision that is right for you. And if your boo is sad that he has to wear condoms, tell him to deal with it.
