How the pharmaceutical industry and media conceal the dark truth about hormonal contraceptives

Conservative podcaster Matt Walsh suggested on one episode of The Matt Walsh Show that big pharma has promoted hormonal contraceptives by downplaying or hiding the serious side effects associated with their long-term use.

During the episode, Walsh tells the story of Cora Vides, an 18-year-old student at Laguna Blanca School High School in Santa Barbara, who in 2021 invited a friend to her home on Valentine's Day and, after declaring to her that she was bisexual asked her to close her eyes, presumably to teach her a new meditation technique. After counting to three, Cora stabbed her friend in the neck.

The victim managed to escape, although she nearly bled to death in the hospital. She had a collapsed lung and needed an operation to reconstruct her larynx. At no time did she know why her friend had tried to kill her. According to Walsh, all the victim knew was that her friend had gone into some sort of dissociative state and had violently attacked her.

At trial Cora was convicted of attempted first-degree murder, but the jury found that she was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the attack. In assessing the verdict, the jury also took into account Cora's self-definition as "non-binary" and her previous diagnoses of mental disorders.

The contraceptive medication "was a major factor"

According to Walsh, perhaps the most important piece of evidence concerned a hormonal birth control pill the young woman had been taking. In his account, this medication may have triggered significant changes in her mood and emotional stability, to the point of worsening her depression in the days leading up to the incident.

According to The Santa Barbara Independent, as quoted by Walsh, defense attorney Robert Sanger "said a new birth control medication Vides was taking was also known to cause 'significant side effects,' including depression. Vides’s older sister, Maya, testified that a month before the stabbing, Vides told her she was cutting herself. Maya responded that she’d also struggled with self-harm and suggested Vides try the same oral contraception she’d been prescribed, which helped balance her hormones. Vides did so, but complained to friends the pills made her feel even more 'off.'"

On the other hand, Dr. Brandon Yakush, a forensic psychologist appointed by the court at the time of the trial, stated that the new contraceptive medication "was a major factor in the worsening of her depression during that period," but he added that there is no literature supporting cases of birth‑control‑induced dissociation.

Memory and emotional processing

For generations, women taking these drugs have reported psychiatric side effects. But according to Walsh, the specific nature of those side effects, beyond mood swings and depression, has not been sufficiently discussed in the public sphere.

The podcaster explained how a recent study conducted by Rice University in Texas found that hormonal contraceptives affect "emotional processing and memory." For Walsh, this finding reinforces the idea that the effects of contraceptives go beyond the physical and could influence cognitive and behavioral aspects as well.

In this sense, the podcaster asks: "What happens when millions of women become more forgetful and more emotional at the same time? Do these women vote differently? Are their relationships more unstable as a result?"

However, Walsh claims that the researchers at Rice University are not concerned about this, since they "described the potential for large-scale memory loss as 'exciting,' saying it might help women forget about traumatic, unhappy experiences."

Walsh also cited other studies that, in his view, reinforce his warnings about hormonal contraceptives. He mentioned research published in 2023 by the University of Montreal in Frontiers in Endocrinology, which found indications that these drugs reduced the size of an area of the prefrontal cortex associated with emotional control, decision‑making, and fear regulation.

He also referred to a study published in Computational Biology that suggested hormonal contraceptive doses could be reduced by more than 90% without losing effectiveness, as well as to Danish research that concluded that birth control pills "affected the body’s ability to regulate stress."

In reality, Walsh claims that what these researchers have discovered is further evidence that hormonal contraceptives have effects on the brain that no one, not even the so‑called experts, truly understands. According to him, "this evidence is continuing to pile up, year after year."

The podcaster argues that none of the people involved in the production or distribution of the birth control pill truly have any idea about the negative effects it may have on women’s health. In his view, if they claim to know, they are lying. According to Walsh, the broader implications of these side effects  which he considers significant are not being taken into account.

Pharmaceutical industry hides data

According to the podcaster, stories like Cora Vides' are not seen in the media because it would lead to questioning the pharmaceutical industry, which "buys more advertisements than anyone."

Walsh also asserts that "the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country have been hiding data — or outright lying about it — for a long time now". According to him, a clear example was how "overt and shameless" the vaccine propaganda was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walsh mentions a couple of videos in which, some years ago, Pfizer claimed that its vaccine was 100% effective in children. Subsequently, according to him, networks such as CNN and MSNBC dutifully repeated the message.

Some time later, however, we learned the truth about the COVID vaccine and, according to Walsh, by then, for millions of people, it was too late. According to the podcaster, similarly, today, we are discovering the truth about the various effects of hormonal contraceptives on the brain, prescribed on a massive scale without in‑depth research into their possible side effects.

Walsh asserts that the same has happened with ADHD drugs, ISRS, Alzheimer's medications, Ozempic and over-the-counter decongestants. In each of these cases, "miracle drugs" have been widely marketed and distributed.

According to him, many years or even decades later, we are finally getting to see some hard evidence. And that evidence, at the very least, changes the discourse that the pharmaceutical industry has built around a particular drug.

Walsh concludes:

"This is not how science is supposed to work. It’s not how public health is supposed to work. But it’s the way things operate at the moment. And before you (or someone you know) takes one of these pills, or any other pill that’s handed to you by a doctor with the promise of correcting some alleged deficiency in the human condition, you have to recognize this simple fact: None of the people involved in the production or distribution of that drug really have any idea what it will do to you. If they claim they know, they’re lying. But like the friend of “Cora Vides” in Santa Barbara, you might nevertheless find out one day — in a very painful and tragic manner — exactly what those consequences will be."