Do Women Know Enough About the Pill? instyle.com

At a time where lack of accessibility to birth control and abortion are major political issues, any suggestion that the pill may not be a good idea feels risky, as though our only choices are accepting whatever is offered or losing it all together. But in the new science-based book This Is Your Brain on Birth Control, out October 1st, Dr. Sarah E. Hill argues that we need to have in-depth conversations about how the pill affects women’s emotions and behaviors.

Despite the ongoing battle for reproductive freedom, it’s fair to be critical about the impact of the pill on women’s bodies. After all, a woman’s ability to regulate her own fertility is “the biggest women’s rights issue out there,” Dr. Hill argues.

Dr. Hill is a researcher in evolutionary psychology, and This Is Your Brain on Birth Control is an interrogation of the things you likely didn’t hear about the pill during your appointment; namely, that the pill doesn’t just regulate fertility, it influences everything a woman’s hormones influence. According to Dr. Hill, that means the pill can impact everything from your choice of partner to your sensitivity to smells to your response to stress. It fundamentally affects women’s psychology, not just fertility, which affects how women feel. “When we change women,” she explains, “we change the world.”