A woman’s TikTok of her doctor-fiancé telling her to stretch on a long flight due to her birth control has gone viral, as many users didn’t know about the risk of blood clots with hormonal birth control.
The user, Charlotte Thompson, showed a video of her stretching with the caption, “my doctor fiancé making me do this every two hours because I’m on the pill.” The video has been seen over 25 million times, and “hearted” two million times. In the comments, many people were either shocked that this was a possibility, or warned that this had happened to them too.
@charlottegrace009 Always taking care of me #docotor #flyingtips #flighttips #femalethings ♬ Lil Boo Thang – Paul Russell
“As someone who got blood clots in her leg after a flight and was on the pill, do the silly stretches,” one person wrote. Another added, “Not a joke, ended up with blood clots from the pill. If I could’ve avoided it from doing this I would’ve.” A third person agreed, writing, “As someone who had blood clots from the pill, I approve.”
Another person wrote that they didn’t even know it was a possibility, commenting, “I didn’t know we were supposed to do this… now [I’m] scared.” Worryingly, one commenter said they had never been warned that this was a possibility. “I have literally never had a [doctor] tell me about this… I’ve been on the pill for 10 years.”
Hormonal birth control is known to have many serious side effects. In addition to the risks of life-threatening blood clots, hormonal birth control is known to bring increased risks of stroke, heart attack, tumors, infertility, and even some cancers. And yet, it appears women are left vastly uninformed.
Despite this, there are states which are now allowing or preparing to allow pharmacists to dispense hormonal birth control to patients without any doctor visits. The FDA recently approved a type of hormonal birth control to be sold over the counter. The risks of hormonal contraception are known to the medical community but not widely known among users of birth control.
Model Hailey Bieber has publicly shared her story of suffering a mini-stroke after starting hormonal birth control — and warned that, like the commenters in Thompson’s TikTok video, didn’t even know it was a risk.
“I had just recently started birth control pills, which I should have never been on because I am somebody who suffers from migraines anyway,” she said. “And I just did not talk to my doctors about this. So ladies, if you suffer from bad migraines and you plan on being on birth control pills, make sure you tell your doctor because having a stroke is a potential side effect from birth control pills.”
