151 MILLION
The estimated number of people currently using oral birth control.
Search “birth control” on TikTok, and you’ll be met with more than 130,000 videos, many of them about quitting hormonal contraception. In some, people share how doing so drastically improved their lives (“I finally feel like myself again!”), but in a significant number of posts on TikTok and beyond, others deliver a warning. They tell stories of day-to-days thrown into disarray, of mood swings, fatigue, acne, hair loss, or irregular periods. Unbeknownst to them—and to the majority of people considering, using, or stopping hormonal birth control—this kind of experience has a name.
Post–birth control syndrome, or PBCS, affects an estimated 1 in 5 women. It covers what happens when someone goes off hormonal birth control (any form but…