BY Lux Alptraum
June 6, 2007
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3 Comments

Every day, at exactly 8:30pm, an alarm goes off on my phone. Three out of every four weeks, that alarm is telling me to take a pill. (During the fourth week, I’m technically supposed to take a pill as well, but since it’s a placebo I tend to skip it.)

Yes, I’m on birth control. Tri-Sprintec (a generic form of Ortho Tri-Cyclen), to be exact. I have been on hormonal birth control for over six years now, and so for the past six years, every time that alarm has gone off, I’ve needed to stop what I’m doing and take my pill.

It would be great if I were at home every time that alarm went off. It would be great if I had the utmost privacy, and a glass of water, and could turn the act of taking medication into some kind of holy little private ritual.

It would be great, but it’s not going to happen. The fact is, sometimes I have to take my birth control pill in public. This doesn’t bother me — but it seems to bother other people.

Discretion is a big selling point with birth control methods. Check the FAQ for just about any popular method: chances are, the word “discreet” will make an appearance somewhere (unless we’re talking about Ortho Evra: apparently it’s hard to sell the idea that “no one will know” when you’re talking about what amounts to an oversized band-aid full of hormones.).

There are very obvious reasons why someone would want their birth control method to be discreet: a teenager who’s having sex might worry about parents discovering evidence that she’s gone on birth control, a woman might live somewhere where being on birth control is stigmatized, or she just might not want people to know anything about her personal life. But when discretion is prized above all, when it’s a heavily marketed feature of several birth control products, it more or less sends the message that birth control is something you need to hide. Something you should be ashamed of.

Because, you know, you should be ashamed if anyone finds out that you’re sexually active. Or at least, having sex with no intention of reproducing.

It seems to me that we should support a woman’s choice to use birth control: that we should recognize the fundamental good in a woman deciding that she’s not ready to have children, and taking steps to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. It seems to me that we should be able to understand that use of contraceptives does not always indicate sexual activity: that some women are on methods simply as preparation for potential sexual activity, regardless of their current situation.

It seems to me that we should encourage women to be proud that they’re responsible enough to get on a method and take care of their shit. But hey, that’s just me.

Fuck discretion. I’m on birth control, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.