“I had a horrible experience on the birth control pill. I’m 65. I want to use vaginal estrogen to prevent problems… but I’m terrified of anything systemic.” First — if this is you, you are not crazy. You are responding to a past experience. And that matters. But let’s separate oral birth control pills from low-dose vaginal estrogen. They are not the same therapy. Not the same dose. Not the same systemic exposure. Not the same risk profile. Birth control pills are systemic hormone therapy designe

Everyone deserves access to birth control if they want it. But I would never push someone (any gender) to just have to deal with side effects that can ruin or end their life. My primary issue, especially for those who seek to misunderstand me, is that we tell women to put up with side effects or worse—tell them they are imagining them. And at the same time, completely validate men and say they deserve better. I’m not asking to medicate men into feeling miserable. I’m asking to believe and valida