Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
No.
A claim by a psychology professor interviewed by conservative commentator Rachel Campos-Duffy that hormonal birth control increases teens’ “risk of death by suicide 600%” is not supported by the study she cited.
Hormonal birth control uses synthetic hormones such as estrogen and progestin, typically in pill form.
Campos-Duffy, a Republican and wife of former Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, posted on social media part of her interview with Texas Christian University’s Sarah Hill, author of a birth control book.
Hill cited to Wisconsin Watch a 17-year study led by University of Copenhagen researchers published in 2017. Among nearly 476,000 women in Denmark ages 15-33, 71 suicides were found.
The suicide risk was three times higher among hormonal contraceptive users than among women who never used them.
Charlotte Wessel Skovlund, one of the study authors, told Wisconsin Watch there weren’t enough suicides among teens to calculate a suicide risk for them.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
National Library of Medicine: Birth control pills
FOX News Radio: Is Your Birth Control Making You Sad, Fat & Attracted To Beta Males?
American Journal of Psychiatry: Association of Hormonal Contraception With Suicide Attempts and Suicides
Google Docs: Charlotte Wessel Skovlund email
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