Lorde has opened up about coming off the contraceptive pill. During the latest cover interview for Rolling Stone, she told writer Brittany Spanos that, towards the end of 2023, she stopped taking birth control for the first time since she was 15: “I’ve now come to see [my decision] as maybe some quasi right-wing programming, but I hadn’t ovulated in 10 years. And when I ovulated for the first time, I cannot describe to you how crazy it was. One of the best drugs I’ve ever done.”

She said she felt like she had superpowers, as if being off birth control had ‘peeled a film off her life’. But it also came with bigger crashes than she’d ever experienced, and the singer was eventually diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), often described as a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Rolling Stone added that she has since had an IUD inserted, which is visible on her new album cover: “I felt like stopping taking my birth control, I had cut some sort of cord between myself and this regulated femininity. It sounds crazy, but I felt that all of a sudden, I was off the map of femininity. And I totally believed that that allowed things to open up.”

Her comments about the pill are emotive and loaded, and while they don’t totally align with my own, it’s refreshing to see this topic discussed by a celebrity, and not just as a passing comment, but as inspiration for art and treated with the gravitas it deserves.

So, upfront: I don’t view the pill or its popularity as “right-wing programming,” I don’t believe narratives of ‘natural is best,’ and I don’t think taking the pill suppresses our femininity. But, like Lorde, I did experience a transformation when I came off it. We need more conversations about this topic, but way less fearmongering.

The contraceptive pill is so often treated as the default option for people who menstruate, and as a society, we are incredibly casual about it. In 2019, it was the most popular contraceptive in England, with approximately 3.1 million women taking it – there isn’t much concrete data on current statistics (a problem in and of itself).

I remember being thirteen years old, going to the GP with my mum for the third time since starting my periods a few years earlier. I already knew my periods weren’t normal – the pain, the flow, the impact on my life all signalled something more. I was prescribed Microgynon and sent away. No further investigation, no additional information. At sixteen, I went back. My symptoms were eased by the pill, but things still didn’t feel right. I had a scan, but no blood tests or deeper investigations, and again, I was sent away. At eighteen, I tried a different brand of contraceptive, and things got worse, triggering panic attacks for the first time in my life. Then, at twenty-two, I finally decided to come off contraception altogether. My symptoms returned with a clanging thud; already on the edge of unmanageable while on the pill, my periods became life-controlling.

This year, I turned 30. And, maybe due to my age – now seen as a mother-in-waiting – I was finally taken seriously by medical professionals. After two specialist appointments, I was diagnosed with PCOS. I’ve also been diagnosed with PMDD, like Lorde. Not much has changed post-diagnosis; there’s no cure, and very little research. But I do feel vindicated, like life can begin honestly now.