“It’s Those Pills That Are Ruining Me”: Gender and the Social Meanings of Contraceptive Side Effects

Krystale Littlejohn, Stanford University

Almost half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, in spite of the availability of highly effective birth control. Women often cite side effects as a reason for stopping hormonal birth control and most research on the topic comes from a medical perspective. In this study, I analyze side effects from a social perspective that highlights the link between cultural messages about gender and women’s contraceptive behavior. Drawing on data from interviews with 103 women, I argue that the gendered emphasis on women’s appearance and emotionality shapes women’s perceptions about the seriousness of contraceptive side effects like weight gain and emotional volatility and their propensity to stop use as a result. Contrary to understandings of side effects as a purely medical aspect of use, the gender analysis elucidates the ways that particular side effects are imbued with social meaning that can undermine women’s goals to prevent pregnancy.