*When I refer to birth control in this article, I am not referring to methods of safe sex or non-chemical birth control, like the ever famous “pull-out” method or condoms. ALWAYS USE A CONDOM! When I say I don’t use birth control, I mean I do not take a hormonal birth control.

Let me start off by saying that I am a HUGE fan of free/affordable birth control. Whether that birth control is oral, a shot, implant, or IUD. I am pro-choice forever. I think anyone should have absolute freedom to make whatever choices are best for them emotionally, mentally, and physically, no matter their economic standing, race, or whatever else you can come up with.

There are women that get severe menstrual pain and other symptoms that hormonal birth control is great at fixing. I never had unbearable issues, so going off birth control wasn’t altering my life in any drastic way. If birth control helps you live your life to its fullest, don’t let my #whoowhooshit get in your way.

I started taking The Pill when I was 18 and entering college. The day I got my prescription was full of tears and my doctor telling my mom a lot that he shouldn’t have. I had a high school sweetheart and because we planned to continue dating, the oral contraceptive sounded like the logic thing to do. Damn didn’t I feel like the modern, empowered woman.

The Pill worked really well for me for a long time. I kind of really sucked at taking it every day at the same time, and often took like three at a time, but other than that, I was happy and healthy. My boyfriend and I broke up and, you know, sex became less frequent. Alas, I stayed on The Pill though. It wasn’t even really a thought to go off of it.

That is kind of how The Pill was for me, though. I didn’t really think about the effects it might have other than keeping me baby-free. It seemed like all my friends were on some form of hormonal birth control, so it had to be great right? My school district had a relatively high percentage of teenage pregnancy and had a huge STD problem, so we were definitely not taught abstinence-only. In 10th grade health, we were given a spreadsheet of all the different types of birth control. We didn’t ever talk about what birth control really is though. We were told to always wear a condom and hormonal birth control is the best if you can get it.

I was recommended to go off of hormonal birth control after being diagnosed with a Neurological disorder. The thought was, if The Pill causes migraines and headaches, maybe it wasn’t helping my other pain levels. So much was changing with my body, I can’t for sure tell if my discontinued use had any effect on my Trigeminal Neuralgia. This was almost a year ago. As soon as I stopped using it I started to realize that a lot of my friends were not in fact on taking hormonal contraceptives. I was not in the small minority, others have also made the choice not to use birth control.

With any medication, if you don’t have to be on it, don’t be. Bodies are supposed to be less than perfect, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. There are serious side effects not talked about. Although the very serious side effects, like death and heart attack, aren’t very common, it is the “less significant” ones that will get you. Quite a few of my friends experienced more than “a little weight gain” with many different types of hormonal contraceptives. Depression is another biggie. When you mess around with hormones, it can really affect your mind, body, and soul. Your body is tricked into thinking it’s eggos preggos for three weeks and then all of a sudden it has lost the baby, and that is just with The Pill. With IUDs your body thinks you’re pregnant for the three or five years it is inserted. I couldn’t any official study or journal saying that making your body think it’s pregnant is bad, but it can not be good. When I told my Gyno I was off birth control, she told me all about alternative (just more natural ways) of avoiding pregnancy. She also told me that she isn’t the biggest fan of hormonal birth control either.

I have a simple period/ovulation tracker on my Iphone in order to lessen my chances of getting pregnant. Not only has that been super effective for me, but it has helped me get to know my body. Since coming off The Pill my periods have been a little less regular, but a lot shorter. At first this less than perfect performance was really scary. Like had I messed up my inner-balance or something? The answer was No. My periods are regular again, but are still super light and short-- which is not something I am going to complain about.

So in general, I am skeeved out by Western medicine and our obsession with making our bodies exactly how we think they should perform. I think putting any unnecessary chemicals into your body is bad. It is also a choice though, and that is such an important idea. You aren’t a bad feminist if you aren’t the queen of BC. Do what makes you feel right.

Also, always use a condom.