- I get why they could be a pain,
but I personally think that I can
take a pill once a day at the same time.
- So I forgot my birth control.
- This is infuriating.
- It's just bothering me.
- Ohp, oh, oh no.
- This fucking pill.
- Alright, I'm officially sick and tired of the pill.
(whimsical orchestral music)
- Like many women living in 2017, I'm on birth control,
specifically the birth control pill.
So, since we're living through some
pretty trying ass times right now
with women's access to birth control
always being a topic of discussion
but rarely a topic of discussion held by women.
- Now I can tell you this is most troubling.
This is disturbing.
- [Woman] Rise up, women.
- [Group] Rise up.
- [Woman] Rise up, women.
- [Group] Rise up.
- I felt like now was a really great time to challenge
some of my male coworkers to an experiment.
- Birth control is the ultimate gift
that came out of science.
- The wonderful way to be able to plan your life out.
- The women I've dated have had many complaints
about the different types of birth control they've been on.
- So while the women of Buzzfeed were extremely excited
to see a video like this getting made,
I literally have no idea what happened to the men.
It was dead silent on that email thread.
- I was hesitant to do this video because I was afraid
it was gonna be some weird placebo pills.
After knowing that it's gonna be Tic Tacs,
I feel a little better.
- It can't be as simple as I think it is,
and that's how guys view birth control, right?
Because they view it as being very simple.
What's the big deal?
- Because believe me, if there was a pill that could hey
by all means, I will be not potent at all.
This would be a Sahara desert.
- My girlfriend does things for me
and one of these things is taking birth control,
and I really wanna know what she's going through.
- Let's go over the rules.
So while I couldn't give them acne and weight gain
and mood swings and all the other bullshit
that we go through,
I figured we could at least simulate the inconvenience.
Rule number one is you have to pick up your birth control
from me on Sunday between 11 AM and 1 PM.
- Okay, Super Bowl Sunday.
- This is not a good time.
- You can only take your birth control
from the original pack of Tic Tacs that you are given.
There's no buying of another pack of Tic Tacs
just because you don't have your pack with you
and you need to take it.
- What if I forget it?
What would happen?
- If you miss a pill,
a.k.a. if you're over an hour late taking your pill,
you will have to refrain from sexual activity that night,
and that's partnered sex or masturbation.
- What? - Yes.
- I can't even masturbate. - Nope.
- Fair enough. - We're not done.
- Okay.
- You have to wear a pad with a period like substance.
- What is that?
- So the reason for that is that
when a woman misses her birth control,
for a lot of people, that will mess up her cycle.
- Deal.
That's actually more incentive to never miss this pill.
(laughing)
- I'm feeling more nervous now than I did
at the start of this.
- But also confident at the same time.
- Alright, let's do it.
- I had an idea that in order to make this experience
even more relatable to women,
I should give them insurance cards that they have to present
when they pick up their birth control.
I have a gift for you.
- What is it?
- [Daysha] So, I have an insurance card.
(laughing)
- Specialist copay's 25?
Mine, I pay 30.
- [Daysha] I know, this is some
- This is good insurance. - [Daysha] Bomb ass insurance.
- This is good insurance you've given me.
- So I can't give you your pills
unless you present your insurance card on Sunday
so don't forget it.
- You're just really trying to make this
more difficult, huh?
- [Daysha] What are you talking about?
- You're just doing whatever you can to just
'cause I think you're afraid that we're gonna crush this.
- Good luck, sir.
- I'm gonna get it.
It's 21 days. - [Woman] Good luck.
It's a rough road.
- I can do 21 days, same hour everyday.
- You would think. Just wait.
- I hope there isn't a real $15 copay.
- [Daysha] You don't have a copay.
- Uhm. (laughing)
- So right now, you're okay
because under the ACA, birth control is free.
(whimsical orchestral music)
- I'll be seeing you on Sunday.
- It's almost 11:30.
I'm going, I'm on my way now
to get my birth control from the pharmacist.
- I made it in time, and now I gotta wait 15 to 20 minutes
probably a little bit longer to get my birth control.
'Cause that's what normally happens, right?
- I'm really nervous because the pharmacist
just asked me if it was my first time picking up
which means I'm in for some more bullshit.
- I'm pretty sure that they just thought
that they were going to walk up in here
and just take a pack of Tic Tacs and go about their day,
and I said hell no.
We're really going through this experience.
- She's looking at the insurance card
as if there's any information on there at all.
- Garrett, it looks like you have a prescription
for male birth control.
Is that correct?
- [Garrett] Yes.
- Okay, so if you give me about 15, 20 minutes,
I should be able to fill it for you.
- This is infuriating.
- It's a pharmacy with only three people that go to it
yet I'm waiting this long.
- [Garrett] I don't know what she's doing.
She's just like doing arts and crafts
or some shit over there.
- Look at this. This is very thorough.
Let me tell you, how much work I put into this.
- But I've also waited for other, you know,
drugs other than birth control.
I'm used to that.
I guess I don't have to just do it every month
like a female does.
- It's true.
Woman are amazing creatures
- [Daysha] Don't do that.
Don't do that.
- And they live such a struggle.
Alright, taking my first pill.
- I have the option of starting to take it tonight
or tomorrow morning.
I'm gonna prefer tomorrow morning
because I think that's better for me.
When I wake up and take all my other meds.
- 10 PM, day one of 21.
- Day two.
- Two for two. So far, killing the game.
- My alarm just went off, and I was like oh good.
Time to take my pill, and I realized that
my pills are in my car.
This fucking pill.
- Still going strong.
- It's just bothering me.
I freaked out because I thought I lost it.
I'm always worried when I don't have it.
It sucks.
- Some people said I shouldn't suck on it
because that's something good that girls don't get to do.
They don't get to enjoy it, but I have to dry swallow it.
So I'll just dry swallow this one.
- So I forgot my birth control so I have to go back
and there's a lot of traffic on this side.
- I'm doing it on time, but it just sucks
that I have to keep doing it.
- This is gonna become more mundane, I have a feeling,
as I get better at it.
- Okay, I'm currently here flying to Ireland,
and I don't know how I'm gonna figure out
what time I have to take it while I'm up in the air
'cause the time zone is literally changing constantly.
- Well I got into an argument with my girlfriend.
I can't imagine what she's going through
being on her birth control, and you know,
if this was actually like male birth control,
the hormones that I would feel.
And you know, it stopped and made me think,
and I cried a little bit about it.
You know, not because of taking this
but just knowing there is hormones being pumped
into her body that she probably doesn't wanna have.
- I definitely didn't anticipate how hard
it was going to be to take this pill everyday,
and it's really hard to explain why.
- We haven't experienced the weight gain,
the hormones, and all that stuff.
And I've been going through some emotional stuff
so I can't imagine what I would actually feel like
if I had extra hormones pumped into my body.
- It's just fucking annoying.
It's a constant worry.
- If you're not thinking about it ahead of time,
you're gonna be in trouble.
So you've gotta constantly have it on your mind.
I will say that the first week especially,
every time I successfully take it, I feel immortal.
- I thought that it was important for the boys to learn
as much as they could about birth control
while being on this journey so we invited a doctor
to come in and sit down with them.
- First week, I screwed up almost everyday.
It was like oh shoot, I'm out and I don't have my pills.
Luckily, I'm two blocks away form my house.
- You were in between bars and you went back to your house
to take the pill? - Yeah.
We left the house party. - Good for you.
- I paid for the Lyft to go to the bar,
and I told the Lyft driver to stop at my house
and then everybody sat in the Lyft
and I ran inside my house.
- That is dedication.
- Got no other option, man.
I don't wanna get pregnant.
(laughing)
- But it sounds like for all of you,
taking the pill on a consistent basis everyday
at the same time was challenging.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- Yeah, that was a pain in the ass.
- That's basically all we have to do,
and it was very difficult.
- But what women also have to deal with
is all the side effects that sometimes can happen
when they take the pill.
Headaches, nausea, breast tenderness, bloating,
and all of those things you guys didn't have.
- Only other convenience that we had
that women have to go through is
going through the pharmacist.
- Yeah.
- That pharmacist we had, man.
- I'm getting a new pharmacist.
- It was the worst pharmacy ever.
- They were like oh I can't wait to give this pharmacist
a bad Yelp review.
I'm like I wish you would.
- So could you imagine a situation where
every single month, you're having to deal with that?
And remembering ahead of time that you need to do that
because if you're starting your new pack on Sunday,
that you have to go in on Friday?
- So what are the developments of birth control for men?
- Well men are, it's really tricky
to have birth control for men.
Men produce millions of sperm every day,
so in order to prevent pregnancy,
you have to prevent production of all the millions of sperm,
and you have to do it everyday.
That's a lot of sperm versus actually just
preventing one egg from ovulating
which is what the birth control pill does, alright?
So in order to do that, you need
pretty strong levels of hormone, alright?
And often times, strong levels of hormone
are associated with pretty bad side effects.
And in fact, an oral formulation of the hormone
that you would need to take,
men would clear that hormone so quickly
they would actually have to take
a pill multiple times a day.
- No way.
- No way, it'd be hard, right?
- Couple of my guy friends were like,
I don't, even if that was a real thing,
I don't know if I would do it because hormones.
And I was like, well that's kind of fucked up
because your girl's taking it.
Why shouldn't the onus be put on just the females
and not the males?
- Sometimes I take the pill and I'll think like
oh my god, imagine if you knew you were doing this
for the next 15 years,
how it just like has become part of your life.
'Cause like right now, it's like
definitely inconveniencing me and it's making me appreciate
how hard it is but I'm also aware
that it's just like for a video.
- I'm pretty ready to get this shit over with.
- Two more days, easy peasy.
- You win ladies.
I apologize for ever doubting you.
It sucks.
- This wasn't as easy as I thought and I know
we didn't have even like more than half of the issues
that you ladies have but just picking that time,
trying to stick with that time, it's difficult.
- My life day of pills so
I did it. I did all 21 days.
Didn't miss a day.
- I'm proud of myself.
One guy that didn't.
I don't know if he admitted to it yet.
- So you're sure there's nothing else you wanna tell me.
- What do you mean there's nothing else I wanna tell you?
What?
- Eli's little lying ass.
You missed a day. - I didn't miss a day.
- [Daysha] Yes, you did.
- You have no proof, okay?
- But he didn't know that I had receipts.
(dramatic music)
- You have no proof.
- So Eli's running from us.
- We're trying to find him.
- [Eli] Oh God.
- [Daysha] Yeah, God is right, Eli.
- [Nyla] We got receipts.
Damn, damn, damn.
- [Daysha] There are receipts.
- [Eli] Wow, this is like
- [Nyla] Receipt for everyone.
- Front street and blast boulevard, darling.
- I can't believe the last part
of his name is so significant.
- Wait, what?
- E-lie.
- Oh.
(laughing)
- I feel bad but he
- [Nyla] 'Cause you outed him. - [Woman] You should feel bad.
(laughing)
(dramatic music)
- When I set out to do this video,
I didn't want it to be a "we appreciate women so much
"for what they do for us" kind of video
because this is about so much more than appreciation.
Women are very aware of how amazing and bad ass they are
for taking on the risk and the social stigma
that comes with taking birth control.
I think what women are really looking for
from the men in their lives is solidarity, not sympathy.
- Yeah, when it comes to baby prevention
and all those other things, this whole project
made me realize how easy I have it.
I never knew exactly how expensive birth control was.
- You don't realize that, even though it might be
a $20, $30, $50 copay each month depending on your provider
or if you have health insurance,
that adds up significantly over time.
- I mean, that's what I spend on groceries every month
so if I have to double that for like a pill
that frustrates me to begin with
and makes me feel bad sometimes,
it's like man, this sucks.
- We need guys that are willing to help us pay for it
or if you're not willing to help us pay for it,
help us protect things like the ACA
that are making it inexpensive,
or advocate for scientists to make more progress
on male birth control.
We need you guys to stand with us and not against us.
- Guys, don't pressure your female partner
to be on the pill just so you can have
that extra sensation, you know?
Let them decide.
Let them decide the pill that they want.
Let them decide if they even wanna be on the pill.
It's their body, it's their choice.
Just be cool with it.