This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BU chapter.

By: Kirthana Iyer

Alright, so if you’re a woman in college, you’ve probably thought to yourself, “Hey, what’s up with all this birth control stuff?” If that’s you, this is most definitely something you should be reading! If that’s not, you should still be reading it because female health is very important (and so is sexual health)!!! Let’s get into it.

1. Safety

So this one goes without saying: safety on a college campus is so important, especially if you’re looking for a good time. The name says it all: birth control. CONTROL WHAT YOU BIRTH and know what’s right for you. It’s totally possible to have fun and be safe at the same time.

2. Regulate your gift of the month!

Spoiler alert! Birth control is not only to have safe sex, but it also has so so so many different benefits. One of them is regulating the ugly gift of the month. Yes, that’s right. The Center for Young Women’s Health wrote that pills are prescribed to help with irregular or absent periods! Isn’t that incredible?? So now you can control the pain that comes from your monthly period….yay……

3. Reduce the pain.

Remember that pain I was talking about? *sinister laugh* HAHA tricked you! Birth control can actually help reduce the pain of periods as well. So, not only do you get to regulate your period, but you also get to lessen the pain you feel. Basically, birth control tricks your body into thinking you’re pregnant, so it stops peeling eggs from your nice little uterus (aka, where cramps are formed) and poof, pain is gone. See, birth control isn’t that bad.

4. STOP MIGRAINES.

Here’s another solid. Not only does it reduce the number of cramps you get, regulate your flow, and give you safe sex, birth control also stops the migraines!!! Oh yes! For women, migraines are typically caused by a drop in estrogen, which is just great, because that’s exactly what a period does. But get this: birth control puts estrogen into your system when it is being released from your body so you know what that means? The migraines are gone….poof.

5. Smooth skin all the way.

Did you know that all girls have small levels of male sex hormones? Which is just fan-freakin-tastic, because it makes our skin get acne, or can sometimes lead to hair growth. Amazing, right? Birth control can help manage that too! Because of an increase in estrogen, your body slows the making of male sex hormones so, yes clearer skin! Every girl’s best friend!

6. Lowers your risk of ovarian cancer.

This has gotta be one of the unique reasons that I actually didn’t know about until I researched for this article. So get this, not only does birth control do all the fantastic things I listed before, but on a more serious note, birth control can actually decrease the risk of you getting ovarian cancer for up to 50%. FIFTY PERCENT. That’s INSANE. Think about it: you have the ability to decrease your chances of getting cancer found in its late stages by up to 50% just by taking a pill. I know I’m not the only one totally marveled by this, right?

So I know, six reasons don’t make a book, and I bet there are so many more. But, the reason I wrote this article is that birth control has become stereotyped to only being about safe sex. Yes, safe sex is the best sex, but birth control is also just really important for women’s health. So, now that you’re all informed of the amazing things that birth control has to offer and you have the power to choose, I just hope this article helped answer the question of WHY!

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6 Reasons Why Birth Control is GREAT