[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”3216.3px” custom_margin=”-10px||-46px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” min_height=”156px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-wrap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|600|on||||||” text_text_color=”#808080″ text_font_size=”16px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Having spoken to other women, I’m not the only one…<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Words by Lauren Cunningham<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/IMG_3146-scaled.jpg” alt=”Lauren Cunningham” title_text=”IMG_3146″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n How would your best friend act if you told them you were in love with them? Much like mine, I imagine. An awkward laugh, a \u2018go away\u2019, or maybe they\u2019d be so confused they wouldn\u2019t quite know what to say, particularly if this was the start of a complete sexuality switch. And so it leaves you in a rather awkward situation: you\u2019ve just been rejected, you\u2019ve most likely lost that friend, and you\u2019ve finally admitted that you have feelings for women \u2013 despite always being totally \u2018straight\u2019 only six months before.\u00a0<\/p>\n What caused this sudden realisation of love? That\u2019s the question I, and everyone around me, wanted to know. After eight years of friendship, girls’ holidays, shared dating stories and stints as roommates, it would be an understatement to say it came as a surprise. Yet, the one and only variable factor was clear: I\u2019d just come off of the pill.\u00a0<\/p>\n While I didn\u2019t quite believe it at first, it seems the tiny tablet that had done away with my debilitating period pains, cleared up my teenage acne and protected me from getting pregnant for the past ten years was doing quite a bit more than I was aware of. In fact, along with a newfound attraction towards women, I was suddenly feeling new emotions, breaking free of my default feeling of \u2018fine\u2019. This was, you can imagine, rather tricky to navigate as a now-grown woman.\u00a0Bursting out crying because your boss doesn\u2019t love your idea will get you some strange looks, even more so if you\u2019re known to be \u2018so laidback you\u2019re almost horizontal\u2019. Embarrassing, to say the least.<\/p>\n I also had a sex drive for the first time. Having just gone through (dare I say it) lockdown without once thinking about touching another person in two years, it was now often the only thing on my mind. Much like a teenage boy, my hormones were guiding my every move. Yet, my story, although perhaps rather extreme, isn\u2019t exactly unique. A quick ask on Instagram of \u2018how did the pill affect you?\u2019 received countless responses. From complete changes in sex drive to a sudden shift in who they were attracted to, and even one development of such extreme anxiety to cold sores (despite never having one) that she rarely went outside, women came forward in droves to me, each with a more shocking story than the last.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/IMG_7164-scaled.jpg” alt=”Lauren Cunningham” title_text=”IMG_7164″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Freelance journalist Olivia Perl shared, \u2018I was on the pill for just over three years, and the whole time I was on it, my sex drive was really low. I came off the pill and immediately had a sex drive, and more than that, the sex was so much better \u2013 nothing else had changed, my partner was the same\u2019. She added, \u2018I couldn\u2019t believe how stark the difference was. I was never horny, to the point that I was wondering, \u201cam I even attracted to my boyfriend?\u201d Which sounds really bad because I was, as I found out when I came off\u2019. But Olivia certainly isn\u2019t alone in this experience. In fact, this was the most common response to my question. The contraceptive pill is even listed as a key factor for loss of libido on the NHS website.<\/p>\n In a perhaps even more alarming response, poet and dating expert Rebecca Archer shared another side effect I also relate to. \u2018When I was on the pill, I was like a muted version of myself. Then, when I was having my natural cycle again, I felt like I saw the world in full colour, and I suddenly had a voice and opinions. It was really liberating for me to come off of those hormones. Whatever it was doing to me, it felt like it was suppressing my personality\u2019. While another woman admitted to being \u2018definitely more attached to masc presenting women the year coming off of it\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, all of these striking side effects left me to wonder: did the pill cause my own queer revelation? To help provide an answer, Sandy Christiansen, lead fertility coach and clinical embryologist at B\u00e9a Fertility, says, \u2018many factors drive sexual preferences, hormones being one of them. With the hormonal contraceptive pill suppressing natural hormones, it\u2019s completely possible that when this leaves our system and we start ovulating again, we can reach our sexual peak and find that our preference is different from what we\u2019ve previously felt\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Intimate health, hormone health and women’s wellness issues expert Dr Shirin Lakhani echoes this idea, saying \u2018the contraceptive pill does suppress women\u2019s natural hormone cycle, which can influence which characteristics you deem attractive in a partner, as well as affect a woman\u2019s libido, which could in turn affect their sexual preferences and behaviours\u2019. However, she highlights the core overarching issue, \u2018there just isn\u2019t enough evidence out there to come to a complete conclusion, unfortunately. There needs to be more research into the matter and into women\u2019s relationship with the contraceptive pill in general\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n My issue, however, as someone who was on the contraceptive pill from the age of 14 to 24 to help curb painful period symptoms, which were later diagnosed as adenomyosis, is that I\u2019d never given much thought to my sexual preference before being given the prescription. While my friends spent their teenage years experimenting with different partners and starting to form their adult identities, I pushed through with pill-clouded judgment, following the norm of dating boys without much enthusiasm and certainly without any thought of non-male potential partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Dr Lakhani explains, \u2018if a woman begins taking the contraceptive pill at a very crucial age where she may be developing sexual preferences and feelings, then this may be affected by the change in hormones\u2019. Continuing this idea, Eleanor Hoath, a registered nutrition therapy practitioner and founder of Well Nourished, notes the pill was probably numbing my true emotions. \u2018After discontinuing the pill, some individuals may reconnect with their natural inclinations that may have been numbed for such a long time by these artificial hormones. It can almost be seen as a bit of an “awakening,” which might feel like a shift\u2019. This certainly seems like the most plausible answer; the attraction to women was probably always there, yet massively dampened down alongside my sex drive and a fully developed sense of self.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet, despite its clear downfalls, many women rely on the pill to reduce their risk of unwanted pregnancy or, much like my case, reduce the pain that can come from often-diagnosed menstrual conditions. So, what\u2019s the solution? All experts stress that if you have concerns with your contraceptive pill, seek medical advice \u2013 there are plenty of other forms of contraception available, although many also include hormones. If you\u2019re on the pill for a menstrual condition, diet and lifestyle are known to play an important factor, while Christiansen adds that \u2018tranemaxic acid can help reduce heavy periods for women with endometriosis and mefenamic acid (a type of NSAID\/nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) can help reduce inflammation and pain associated with heavy bleeding\u2019. And Hoath encourages people looking to come off of the pill to do so with guided expert help to reduce any unwanted side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, if the contraceptive pill is still the best solution for you, perhaps take a break from it before committing to one partner just to double-check they\u2019re certainly the person you\u2019re most attracted to. I\u2019m certainly not the only person to have given their best friend the side eye – and, in case you were wondering, it turned out to be the best admission of love I\u2019ve ever made.After the initial shock wore off, my best friend finally agreed to give dating a go and two years later, we\u2019ve never been happier.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Photo: Lauren Cunningham<\/b><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m not the only one experiencing a huge hormone shift, writes Lauren Cunningham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6370"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6553,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions\/6553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘After discontinuing the pill, some women can have an awakening of sorts’<\/h2>\n