“One Blood Clot Is One Too Many”: Affected Vocal Users’ Negative Perspectives on Controversial Oral Contraceptives

Abstract

In this article, I analyze women’s negative experiences with the fourth generation of contraceptive pills: controversial drugs Yaz and Yasmin. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 24 contraceptive users residing in Canada, I highlight how women who have experienced deleterious side effects understand the risks of hormonal contraception and advocate for changes in health risk communication and prescription drug regulation. Findings show that interviewees did not feel they received adequate risk information prior to starting their new drug regimen nor did they think that pregnancy risks should be used as a comparison point for placing hormonal contraceptive risk into perspective. Patient views were generally underlined by a critique of professional risk/benefit assessment techniques and procedures. To illustrate how the modern complexities of health risk assessment extend to the realm of hormonal contraceptives, I here provide a detailed examination of women’s negative experiences while on the pill.

“Did I Choose a Birth Control Method Yet?”: Health Care and Women’s Contraceptive Decision-Making

“…In this way, insurance coverage not only affects whether a woman has access to birth control, but also which variety. These access issues can affect the quality of life for women worried about side effects, health risks, and the medical benefits associated with contraception—concerns most birth control pill users hold, including those in our study (Geampana, 2019; Littlejohn, 2013). Importantly, this participant expresses a lack of knowledge about how insurance works, which can shape how patients respond to such barriers and understand their options.…”

‘They all of a sudden became new people’: Using reproductive justice to explore narratives of hormonal contraceptive experience in Sweden

“…The construction of teenagers as irresponsible is linked to reproductive norms (Hawkes, 1995), which clearly change throughout life. Geampana (2019) describes that women older than 30 years seem 'less concerned about an unplanned pregnancy' (p. 1524) and therefore more prone to using less-efficient non-hormonal methods. This shift in conceptualization of pregnancy risk and contraceptive choice, connected to personal, relational, and societal factors, is made explicit in my material as well.…”

“…Although previous scholarship provides crucial insight into specific aspects of contraceptive experience, such as the teenage initiation of the pill (Brown, 2015), the contraceptive consultation (Littlejohn and Kimport, 2017), side effects (Geampana, 2019;Littlejohn, 2013), and adult contraceptive negotiations (Wigginton et al, 2015), cohesive perspectives on the contraceptive journey are scant (Morison, 2021(Morison, , 2023. Downey et al (2017) used qualitative content analysis of in-depth interviews with Black and Latina women in the United States to explore experiences of evidence and contraceptive decision-making throughout their reproductive lives.…”

“There Are Many of Us”: Online Testimonies From “Pill Victims” as a New Form of Health Activism

“…Pregnancy, like combined hormonal contraception, is a condition that predisposes to thrombosis, and this, according to the medical discourse, justifies the risk associated with the pill, as it is smaller than the risk associated with an eventual pregnancy (Marks, 2001; van Kammen & Oudshoorn, 2002). Conversely, women who have suffered a serious adverse reaction reject this purely statistical logic as an oversimplification and a lack of understanding (Geampana, 2019). The medical gendered interpretation of risk–benefit ratio appeared clearly when hormonal fertility control techniques were experimented on men: serious side effects are acceptable in women, as they are weighed against the risks of pregnancy, while in men, they are not, as they are weighed against a risk-free situation (van Kammen & Oudshoorn, 2002).…”