Social Media’s Influence On Contraception Use

Social media is an increasingly important place where people are socialized about sex and relationships. It can expose people to more expansive understandings of sexual and gender identity, shape attitudes and expectations about dating and relationships, and provide information about sexual health and well-being [1].

One topic that has gained a lot of popularity on social media in recent years is information about various contraception methods for women. Specifically, conversations about hormonal birth control (e.g., “the pill”) seem to occur alongside individuals talking about cycle tracking and other “natural” methods of understanding one’s own fertility. 

In this post, we’re going to dive a little deeper into the types of messages circulating around contraception on social media, how this information can influence people’s own contraception choices, and where to turn to make informed contraception decisions. 

Contraception Information On Social Media

To investigate the messages present within contraception-focused content on social media, researchers analyzed 100 TikTok videos from the five most popular hashtags related to contraception on the platform in 2023. [2] The hashtags were #birthcontrol, #contraception, #thepill, #naturalbirthcontrol, and #cycletracking. When watching these videos, the researchers assessed their quality and reliability, paying specific attention to instances of health misinformation.

Two findings stand out about the content of these videos. First, the researchers found that health misinformation on TikTok was extremely prominent. Second, videos tended to discuss how natural contraception methods (e.g., cycle tracking) were preferable to hormonal options. Although these findings may be unsurprising given the hashtags used to identify the sampled videos, they highlight the popularity of contraceptive content on social media that is not grounded in scientific evidence about the relative risks and effectiveness of different methods. [2]

How Social Media Influence Contraception Choices

The findings from this first study lead us to a second question: do these videos about contraception on social media actually affect people’s sexual health decisions? 

A second study used an experiment to assess how multiple videos featuring the same sentiment affect users on social media. Specifically, researchers explored how TikTok videos about individuals’ own negative experiences with intrauterine devices (IUDs) made individuals feel about using IUDs as a contraception method. [3] To explore this idea, they compiled 11 TikTok videos (8 minutes of content total) where creators spoke only about their personal experiences with IUDs. These videos did not include any research-based statements nor promote any misinformation. Participants watched these videos, rated various sentiments related to IUDs, and were debriefed afterwards. 

Per the results, “young women who viewed videos of other women’s negative experiences with the IUD were likely to believe that these experiences would be their own, had more dread about the IUD, and reported less acceptability of the IUD” (p. 7). Finding IUDs less acceptable was consistent across participants regardless of their own prior social media exposure, last medical visit, and other demographic characteristics. This suggests that repeated exposure to contraception-related information may very well influence our own feelings surrounding contraception, and presumably, our subsequent choices regarding birth control usage. 

Making Informed Contraception Decisions 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that social media should be discounted entirely when it comes to learning about sexual health and contraception. However, it’s important to recognize how easily misinformation can spread, that some birth control content may be politically-motivated, and that social media should not be the sole basis for making informed decisions about contraception. It’s also important to remember that one person’s experience with a particular birth control method may not predict your own. What works well for one person may work very differently for another.

One way to make more informed choices is to talk with your primary care provider or gynecologist about what might work best for you based on your lifestyle and fertility goals. Online, you can check out evidence-based resources from the CDC, Planned Parenthood, and the Cleveland Clinic. In short, it’s important to be cognizant of the kind of messages you tend to read online, and to prioritize science-based content when taking care of your own sexual health. 

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References 

[1] Mendelson, E. A., & Smith, J. K. (2024). Mediated sexual and romantic learning on TikTok: The dating wrapped trend. Social Media + Society, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241279255

[2] de Moel-Mandel, C., Donnelly, A., & Bugden, M. (2025). “Do you know what birth control actually does to your body?”: Assessing contraceptive information on TikTok. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 57(3), 358–367. https://doi.org/10.1111/psrh.70025

[3] Beacham, A. R., Gantman, A., & Golub, S. A. (2026). Impact of repeated negative affective social media content on acceptability of the IUD. The Journal of Sex Research, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2026.2718502