TikTok Videos About The Pill Prompt Alarm

Some doctors worry about social media's messages about birth control. PLUS: Why American kids are less likely to make it to adulthood than peers in other countries.

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• I’m Christopher Pepper, an award-winning health educator and journalist. During the week, I send out editions of my Teen Health Today newsletter that are free for all to read - the most recent is What Makes A "Good Dad" Today?

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In this edition:

• The Health Risks From Plastics Almost Nobody Knows About

• ‘Who Am I Without Birth Control?’

• Gun Violence In America Is Not Hopeless And You Are Not Helpless

• Mother Of Child Shot At Annunciation Calls For ‘Immediate Ban’ On Semi-Automatic Rifles

• American Kids Are Less Likely To Reach Adulthood Than Foreign Peers

• Why Working-class Men Are Facing The Sharpest Decline

• Medical Professionals Are Sharing The Shocking Things Women Didn't Know About Their Own Bodies, And I'm Ashamed Of Sex Education In America

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The Health Risks From Plastics Almost Nobody Knows About (Washington Post)

By Shannon Osaka, Frank Hulley-Jones, and Simon Ducroquet: When Marya Zlatnik meets with women in the early stages of pregnancy, she gives them the standard advice: take prenatal vitamins; avoid alcohol, smoking and eating raw fish. But for certain patients, the maternal fetal medicine specialist at the University of California at San Francisco, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, adds another warning: Avoid plastic.

She is one of a small number of medical practitioners across the country warning patients about the risk of a set of chemicals found in plastics. Known as phthalates, these compounds are found in the blood and urine of virtually everyone in the United States; nine of them are approved for use in plastics that come in close contact with food. For the past two decades, scientists have gathered growing evidence that these chemicals are linked to a dizzying array of health problems, including premature birth, infertility and ADHD. And the greatest risks — and the most dangerous outcomes — are to pregnant women and their children. READ MORE

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Photo by Simone van der Koelen on Unsplash

‘Who Am I Without Birth Control?’ (New York Times)

By Emma Goldberg: Go to TikTok and look up the words “birth control” and a stream of videos appears showing women venting about the pill. There are videos of women saying that birth control pills lead to infertility. There are also videos of women discussing its real potential side effects: water weight gain, depression, loss of libido, irregular bleeding, all of which can be true for some people.

In one TikTok video, a woman sits in her car in a Trader Joe’s parking lot, describing overwhelming nausea under the caption: “My hate for the birth control pill runs deep.” In another, a woman rattles off the pill’s side effects, declaring birth control “one of the most damaging things you can put in your body.” Some women describe getting off birth control to try to lose weight; some say they are now pregnant, adding emojis like a crying face, a laugh-crying face or a shrug.