Jul 28, 2025, 9:00am Shoshana Kaplan
One-third of young women who don’t take birth control say they fear its side effects. Misinformation plays a role, a health expert says.
This story is part of our monthly series, Campus Dispatch. Read the rest of the stories in the series here.
As long as contraception has been widely available, misconceptions about its safety—from weight gain fears to claims you need a birth control “cleanse” every few years—have scared some young women away from using it. Today, this kind of misinformation is no longer solely circulated in locker rooms or sleepovers. In the modern digital world, active misinformation and disinformation campaigns that deter people from using contraception circulate on social media—reaching millions.
The origin of this issue varies. Sometimes, rumors about birth control are intentionally created and promoted for political purposes; this is disinformation. Sometimes, false claims are unintentionally spread by people who believe their statements are true. Other times, one person misrepresents their real, lived experience as a universal truth.
The results are astonishing: A 2022 KFF study found that roughly one-third of reproductive-age women who are not on birth control cite fears of side effects as a reason for avoiding contraception.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, contraception and comprehensive sex education have become more than just public health priorities: They are now the front lines of defense in protecting reproductive rights and empowering people—young women especially—to make choices about their bodies.
I am a public health master’s candidate focused on reproductive health and communications. This summer, I am interning at the sexual health and equity non-profit Advocates for Youth, which champions bodily autonomy for young people. In my work here to develop sex education materials and resources for young people and educators, as well as in my academic research, I’ve come to believe that combatting digital misinformation about birth control will require a collective response.
Taking health advice from TikTok
It’s easy to see how young people can fall victim to digital misinformation: Imagine you’re a 15-year-old girl dealing with severe period pain, or perhaps your acne has gotten out of control. Or maybe, you’re just excited to start having sex for the first time and want to do so safely. After talking with your mom and doctor, you decide to try hormonal birth control. You feel relieved. After months of keeping this big life choice to yourself, you finally shared your needs—and you were heard. You have a plan.
That night, some two hours into your usual TikTok scroll, you’re shown a video featuring a beautiful young woman you recognize from your “For You” page. She says birth control not only wrecked her hormonal balance, but will also cause cancer. You’ve seen this creator’s lifestyle content before and always trusted her. In the most-liked comments, hundreds of people echo her experience, sharing stories of hair loss or feeling “crazy” on the pill. Some comment they’re grateful to have never started birth control at all. Nowhere in the comments do you see a doctor or other medical expert pushing back, insisting that birth control is safe and effective.
What do you do?
Perhaps you search TikTok for other perspectives. You find a couple videos from OB-GYNs disputing the claims. But the other creator’s post had more than 200,000 views and hundreds of comments, while that one OB-GYN’s explainer only has 5,000 views and 20 comments. On social media, attention often passes for credibility.
You text your best friend, who asks her older sister. The sister agrees with the original creator’s claims.
Now you’re really nervous (your sister’s friend has had two boyfriends, after all!). You go back to your mom to say you’re not sure about the plan anymore. You’re scared of what birth control will do to your body. She tries to reassure you that it’s safe, but you can’t stop thinking about the women on TikTok who said it wasn’t.
‘A fertile breeding ground for misinformation’
Even though birth control rumors have circulated for decades, today’s rising mistrust of medical providers and the over-politicization of health, combined with poor digital literacy, have come together to create a fertile breeding ground for misinformation. False claims about infertility and severe mood disorder flourish.
“Data clearly show the deluge of misinformation about reproductive health care, including birth control, on social media,” reads a June 2024 statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the nation’s top association of OB-GYNs. “This misinformation can cause real harm for patients by encouraging unsafe methods of contraception; by sharing ineffective methods that expose people to unintended pregnancy; or by scaring people away from safe, effective, evidence-based methods of contraception.”
The American Medical Association is likewise sounding the alarm that the rapid spread of misinformation puts lives at risk.
To a certain extent, historic distrust in doctors drives this phenomenon. Physicians have long faced accusations of minimizing women’s medical concerns—by not using anesthesia when inserting intrauterine devices (IUDs), for example, or dismissing reports of pain during pregnancy. This past, which fuels genuine mistrust, is especially prominent in Black and brown communities, where the medical establishment in the 19th and 20th centuries routinely ignored, lied to and exploited patients under the guise of scientific discovery and public health. Any serious efforts to address reproductive health care must acknowledge this legacy, not deny it.
Instead, politicians capitalize on this weakening trust in medicine by amplifying misleading claims. Right-wing commentators like Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens routinely use their platforms to denounce birth control and spread lies about its effectiveness and adverse effects, while claiming they are concerned for women’s health. Some academic researchers and political analysts suggest these are deliberate efforts to dampen opposition should Republicans begin repealing access to birth control using the Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity law from the late 1800s that could stop doctors from mailing contraception or abortion pills. The fewer people believing in the efficacy of birth control, the more compelling their case.
Combatting disinformation together
Too often, efforts to combat misinformation are limited to one-on-one doctor’s office conversations, high school health class (if a school district even offers evidence-based sex education; many don’t), or sporadic debunking posts from reproductive health organizations.
Those of us who believe, as I do, that birth control should be a right for every person who needs it must challenge misinformation and disinformation with the same vigor and coordination as the people and groups spreading it. To meaningfully push back, organizations committed to advancing reproductive health-care access must invest in sweeping digital campaigns—paid, organic, and partnerships—to combat misconceptions and reclaim the narrative around contraception.
I’m not the only one who believes these trends call for swift action to match the scale of the problem.
Power to Decide, an organization working to expand access to reproductive health services, is evolving its long-running hashtag campaign #thxbirthcontrol to meet the moment. What began in 2012 as a campaign on X to influence public perception of birth control has now expanded to other platforms including TikTok, where the group posts short videos that highlight the positive, everyday impacts of contraception.
Combatting stigma with content that’s compelling, relatable, and accurate is essential to combatting misinformation. So is getting that content directly to the people most swayed by misinformation.
At the launch of their new Health Misinformation and Trust initiative, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explained, “Most Americans have encountered health misinformation, but a large group simply isn’t sure if it’s true or false. Most people fall into this muddled middle place—underscoring the real opportunities we have to counter misinformation but also the risks of inaction.”
While both of these efforts are promising, they cannot be effective in isolation; a coordinated, aligned response is necessary to effectively combat misinformation.
One encouraging approach is Advocates for Youth’s “The Busybodies Club.” This national campaign, which launched before I joined the organization, combines digital education with relational organizing to teach young people how to “spot fake facts, identify misinformation, and challenge misconceptions.” The Busybodies Club is structured to recognize that challenging misinformation requires more than facts—it requires trust, community, and creativity at the interpersonal and systemic levels. The organization’s guide to spot red flags on birth control posts is a great starting point for folks interested in being part of the solution.
And as more organizations join the fight to combat misinformation about birth control, it’s important to acknowledge that hormonal birth control may not be right for everyone. Depending on the method and hormone type, contraceptives may cause headaches, nausea, and mood changes. For people who experience adverse side effects, there are alternatives like the copper IUD, or different hormonal formulations. This kind of honesty is essential to rebuild trust in contraception and for people to truly exercise reproductive autonomy.
Autonomy means choice. Trouble arises, though, when young women use falsehoods to inform their decisions. Misinformation can convince young people, incorrectly, that everyone will have terrible side effects from hormonal birth control or that or that all non-hormonal methods are equally effective. The copper IUD is more than 99 percent effective. Tracking your cycle is not—it fails to prevent pregnancy up to 25 percent of the time.
The current landscape can make it scary for young people to start birth control, and it shouldn’t be. When a girl wants to take charge of her sexual and reproductive health, I believe she should feel empowered, informed, and supported—not frightened. In an era where reproductive autonomy faces relentless attacks online and in legislatures, arming young people with facts isn’t a luxury. It’s a matter of survival.
Disclosure: Shoshana Kaplan is a 2025 graduate fellow at Rewire News Group, focused on sexual health. She is a summer intern at Advocates for Youth, where she receives some funding for her work.
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