Why we are stopping the pill

It feels like yesterday that I casually popped two pills in one day to cheat. Not the uplifting and mind-expanding kind, but those for preventing babies. I was quite the easygoing type and not really into iron discipline, let's just leave it at that. Until I suddenly thought: that's enough, that pill has to go. I tossed it in the trash and made a trip to the gynecologist for an alternative method.

I can name at least ten women in my immediate circle who have stopped taking the pill. No worries, there won't be a list with names and birthdates, but I still find it striking, all within two years. Especially since they are not planning on getting pregnant (the man, that is) or giving birth to babies. Millennials, yes, you and I who were born between 1980 and 2000, seem to be pill-weary. Done with that junk in the body. A study by Rutgers even says that pill usage has decreased by ten percent since 2013. Look, those are some numbers that prove something and try to say something. So it seems to be true.

But what then? In one spiral, you're still dealing with hormones, with the copper variant you really have to love your period a lot, the time for singing in church is a bit over, so what about plastic and co? It even seems that you can take your temperature to see if you're fertile. I don't know how it is for you, but I'm not exactly excited about the thermometer and I don't quite see it fitting into foreplay.

I hear quite a bit of grumbling and growling around me and this time it has nothing to do with the mood swings that the pill brings. There are sighs and groans about condoms and that the monthly struggle is more painful now that the pill is retired. About how it's quite scary that the monthly app says you're extremely fertile today and that the first lawsuits against those specific app developers due to sudden pregnancies seem to be in full swing.

Oh well, you still have some little things. The pounds are flying off, we don't burst into tears when the lamb's lettuce is gone at the supermarket, the desire for sex is at an all-time high, and there's a lot less unnatural junk going into our bodies. Because the research also says that this is the main reason: we no longer want to mindlessly stuff our bodies with junk. Agreed, hence.

P.S.: Time for the man to start taking pills.

Source: Vogue