More women are turning away from hormonal birth control. Now what?

iStock.com/wichayada suwanachun

By Ellie Broughton

Dr Patricia Lohr examines shifting attitudes about contraception, how they have left doctors with too few options – and current efforts to develop a new kind of birth control.

Public attitudes towards contraception have been changing in recent years. The reasons are many and overlapping: the rising popularity of influencers promoting more “natural” ways of living; a growing weariness among women for side effects of hormonal methods – the kinds of side effects that, notably, stalled efforts to develop a male pill; worry about pain and discomfort associated with insertion of intrauterine devices (IUDs) and more.

For many people, hormonal contraception is just not an option

At the same time, recent steps have been taken to improve reproductive health and choice. Last year, abortion was decriminalised in England and Wales in order to prevent women being investigated, prosecuted or sentenced for ending their own pregnancy. Earlier this year, the former health secretary Wes Streeting announced that women would be offered pain relief as standard for IUD fittings under a new national strategy.