A 19-year-old TikToker posted a video last month about suffering a blood clot that traveled to her brain, which she was told was caused by her birth control pills.
Young women in recent years have started to question hormonal birth control over the effects of the pill, sparking viral hashtags like #GettingOffBirthControl.
“Find out I have a blood clot in my brain from the birth control I’ve been taking for two years,” Sydney Marshall said in a TikTok video, which appears to have been taken from inside a hospital.
Marshall outlined her medical struggle, which she said started with a “slight headache.” Then, after trying medications like Tylenol and Excedrin, what became a “pounding migraine” wouldn’t go away.
The 19-year-old said the migraine lasted for “five days straight” before she went to urgent care, where the teen was given a Cortisone shot.
Marshall said the shot helped for the night, but in the morning she woke up with another migraine and went to an emergency room.
After getting blood work and CT and MRI scans, the TikToker said she found out she had a blood clot in her brain “from the birth control I’ve been taking for two years.”
With the recent interest in birth control pill effects, the video went viral, racking up more than 12 million views since last month.
@sydneymarshall Been an amazing week 😘😘
Model Hailey Bieber in May told young women to have a dialogue with their doctors before getting on birth control pills. Notably, the 25-year-old wife of superstar Justin Bieber suffered a blood clot in her brain, bringing on stroke-like symptoms back in April.
“I had just recently started birth control pills, which I should’ve never been on because I am someone who suffers from migraines anyway, and I just did not talk to my doctor about this,” Mrs. Bieber told her followers.
“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,” she added.
Verywell Health noted that people with migraine with aura have a slightly elevated risk of clots and stroke, especially if they take birth control pills or smoke.
“It really can change the game on whether there is a relative risk between an oral contraceptive that has estrogen in it, and whether or not you have aura,” explained Jessica Shepherd, Verywell’s chief medical officer and a certified obstetrician-gynecologist.