THE FUSE

Social media has long been rife with misinformation about birth control, much of it slamming hormonal contraceptives for health harms (like infertility or even abortion) that it does not cause or whipping up alarm around side effects that only apply for some users. But another subset of these posts, which is growing as of late, decries dangers of a different flavor, suggesting that hormonal birth control isn’t just bad for your health; it can change the type of person whom you’re attracted to, and ostensibly, for the worse. Take the pill, the posts say, and you’ll date someone less hot—specifically, a man lacking in testosterone—than if you let your hormones run their natural course, and you won’t even know you’re doing it.