Lorde has opened up about coming off the contraceptive pill. During the latest cover interview for Rolling Stone, she told writer Brittany Spanos that, towards the end of 2023, she stopped taking birth control for the first time since she was 15: “I’ve now come to see [my decision] as maybe some quasi right-wing programming, but I hadn’t ovulated in 10 years. And when I ovulated for the first time, I cannot describe to you how crazy it was. One of the best drugs I’ve ever done.”
She said she felt like she had superpowers, as if being off birth control had ‘peeled a film off her life’. But it also came with bigger crashes than she’d ever experienced, and the singer was eventually diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), often described as a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
Rolling Stone added that she has since had an IUD inserted, which is visible on her new album cover: “I felt like stopping taking my birth control, I had cut some sort of cord between myself and this regulated femininity. It sounds crazy, but I felt that all of a sudden, I was off the map of femininity. And I totally believed that that allowed things to open up.”
As a new Davina McCall documentary looks at the ‘contraception revolution’.
Her comments about the pill are emotive and loaded, and while they don’t totally align with my own, it’s refreshing to see this topic discussed by a celebrity, and not just as a passing comment, but as inspiration for art and treated with the gravitas it deserves.
So, upfront: I don’t view the pill or its popularity as “right-wing programming,” I don’t believe narratives of ‘natural is best,’ and I don’t think taking the pill suppresses our femininity. But, like Lorde, I did experience a transformation when I came off it. We need more conversations about this topic, but way less fearmongering.
The contraceptive pill is so often treated as the default option for people who menstruate, and as a society, we are incredibly casual about it. In 2019, it was the most popular contraceptive in England, with approximately 3.1 million women taking it – there isn’t much concrete data on current statistics (a problem in and of itself).
I remember being thirteen years old, going to the GP with my mum for the third time since starting my periods a few years earlier. I already knew my periods weren’t normal – the pain, the flow, the impact on my life all signalled something more. I was prescribed Microgynon and sent away. No further investigation, no additional information. At sixteen, I went back. My symptoms were eased by the pill, but things still didn’t feel right. I had a scan, but no blood tests or deeper investigations, and again, I was sent away. At eighteen, I tried a different brand of contraceptive, and things got worse, triggering panic attacks for the first time in my life. Then, at twenty-two, I finally decided to come off contraception altogether. My symptoms returned with a clanging thud; already on the edge of unmanageable while on the pill, my periods became life-controlling.
After a decade of trying to find the right contraception, this method brought balance back to my body.
This year, I turned 30. And, maybe due to my age – now seen as a mother-in-waiting – I was finally taken seriously by medical professionals. After two specialist appointments, I was diagnosed with PCOS. I’ve also been diagnosed with PMDD, like Lorde. Not much has changed post-diagnosis; there’s no cure, and very little research. But I do feel vindicated, like life can begin honestly now.
When I came off the pill at 22, although the painful symptoms intensified, I too felt like I’d “peeled a film off” my life. It took a few years for my body to regulate, but I began to feel like ‘myself’. The biggest shift was mental, I could, for the first time, identify that my symptoms of depression only came during my luteal phase, something the pill had masked entirely.
The pill was an incredible feminist win, it changed women’s lives en masse. I don’t want to dismiss that. But we should be interrogating it more. Not everything works for everyone, and while the pill might be brilliant for some, it deserves deep consideration. The laundry list of potential side effects – blood clots, depression, migraines, libido suppression – should make us all pause before being shuffled out of a GP waiting room and off to the pharmacist within minutes.
And how to sync your skincare.
As a young woman, I didn’t know I had choices. And while those choices remain pretty dismal and limited (thanks to medical misogyny and patriarchy) there are some. I wouldn’t change being on the pill during my teenage years. It helped me live a more ‘normal’ life. I just wish I’d gone into it with my eyes open, armed with knowledge.
If you're questioning being on, or taking, the pill, don't be fooled into thinking coming off will give you superpowers a la Lorde. That definitely didn't happen for me. But, take time to look into your body, and what works best for you, and how medical misogyny has impacted our knowledge. Maybe that's the pill, maybe it's not. No one can dictate that for you.
Every woman should have the right to a safe, legal abortion.
