Hormonal birth control can shift how you experience attraction and desire, but the effect varies widely from person to person. Most women report no change in sexual interest while on the pill, though a meaningful minority do notice a drop. The bigger question, whether the pill literally changes who you’re attracted to, has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. The science is more nuanced than the headlines suggest.
What Happens to Your Hormones on the Pill
Combined oral contraceptives work partly by suppressing your body’s own hormone production, including testosterone. Yes, women produce testosterone too, and it plays a key role in sex drive. A meta-analysis found that combined pills reduce free testosterone by an average of 61%. They do this both by directly suppressing production in the ovaries and adrenal glands and by causing the liver to produce more of a protein called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which soaks up testosterone in the bloodstream like a sponge. With less free testosterone circulating, some women notice a dip in desire.
That said, the connection between testosterone levels and libido isn’t as straightforward as “less testosterone equals less interest.” Hormones interact with mood, stress, relationship dynamics, and individual sensitivity. Two women with the same drop in free testosterone can have completely different experiences.
How Many Women Actually Lose Desire
The numbers depend on how you ask the question. One large systematic review found that 84.6% of women on oral contraceptives reported no change in sex drive, 12% reported an increase, and only 3.5% reported a decrease. That paints a reassuring picture. But other research using different methods tells a slightly different story: about one in five pill users reports negative sexual side effects, and roughly half of those women eventually stop their method because of it. The gap between these numbers likely comes down to how studies define and measure desire, whether they ask about it directly or use standardized questionnaires, and whether women feel comfortable reporting the change.
Mood changes on hormonal contraception can also play an indirect role. Irritability, low mood, and anxiety are all recognized side effects for some users, and mood disorders are a frequent contributor to low desire and arousal difficulties. If the pill makes you feel emotionally flat or more anxious, that alone can dampen your interest in sex and closeness, even if the hormonal effect on desire itself is subtle.
The “Scent Attraction” Theory
You may have seen headlines claiming the pill makes you choose the wrong partner. This idea comes from research on immune system genes called MHC genes. Normally, women tend to prefer the body odor of men whose immune genes are different from their own, a preference thought to be evolutionarily useful because it could lead to offspring with stronger immune systems. Studies have found that women on the pill show a reversed pattern: they prefer the scent of men with similar immune genes, possibly because the pill mimics pregnancy hormones, which shift women toward preferring the smell of genetic relatives (people who might help care for a baby).
The concern, then, is that if you chose your partner while on the pill, going off it might change how attracted you feel to them. One study found exactly this: women who met their partner while using oral contraceptives scored lower on sexual satisfaction and partner attraction, and their sexual dissatisfaction tended to increase over time. Interestingly, these same women were more satisfied with their partner’s caregiving qualities and had longer, more stable relationships overall. They were just less sexually drawn to their partners.
How Strong Is This Effect, Really?
A 2025 meta-analysis tested this “congruency hypothesis,” the idea that changing your pill status (starting or stopping) relative to when you met your partner affects sexual satisfaction. The results were underwhelming. Across thirteen studies using between-subjects designs, the overall effect was not statistically significant, and the data moderately favored the conclusion that there is no meaningful effect. Within-subjects studies (tracking the same women over time) did find a small, statistically significant correlation, but the actual size of the effect was small.
The researchers concluded that while some individual women might experience a shift in attraction after changing their contraceptive use, on average, the effect is unlikely to be large. So the dramatic narrative that “the pill made you pick the wrong partner” is probably overstated for most people, even if it captures something real for a small number of women.
What Happens When You Stop
If you do feel like the pill dampened your desire or attraction, stopping it tends to bring those feelings back. A study tracking over 1,500 women who recently discontinued hormonal contraception found that both sexual desire and partner attraction increased over a three-month period. Desire continued to climb even after menstrual cycles resumed, suggesting the recovery isn’t instant but builds gradually.
There’s one important caveat, though. Research on women who discontinued hormonal contraception found that the impact on marital satisfaction depended on their partner’s physical attractiveness. Women who stopped the pill and were married to partners independently rated as more attractive became more satisfied. Women who stopped and were married to partners rated as less attractive became less satisfied. Starting hormonal contraception, by contrast, showed no consistent association with satisfaction in either direction. This suggests that going off the pill may sharpen your sensitivity to physical cues rather than universally improving or worsening how you feel about your partner.
Hormonal vs. Non-Hormonal Options
If you suspect hormonal contraception is affecting your desire or attraction, switching to a non-hormonal method is one option. The copper IUD contains no hormones and doesn’t affect testosterone or SHBG levels. Studies comparing copper IUDs to hormonal IUDs have found no major differences in overall sexual function between the two, though copper IUD users may report slightly greater sexual satisfaction than users of hormonal methods, injectables, or pills. One study found that both hormonal and copper IUD users reported some negative effect on desire, which points to the possibility that factors beyond hormones, like the stress of worrying about pregnancy or the experience of heavier periods with the copper IUD, can also influence how you feel about sex.
Sorting Out What’s Really Going On
Loss of interest in a partner is common in long-term relationships regardless of contraception. The natural decline of novelty, life stress, sleep deprivation, unresolved conflict, and simple routine all erode desire over time. It can be tempting to blame the pill for something that has multiple causes, and it can be equally tempting to dismiss a real hormonal side effect as “just a relationship problem.”
A practical way to get clarity: if you started hormonal birth control around the same time your interest dropped, and especially if you also notice other hormonal side effects like mood changes or vaginal dryness, the contraceptive is a reasonable suspect. Switching formulations, trying a lower-dose option, or moving to a non-hormonal method for a few months can help you figure out whether the pill is the culprit. Most women who stop hormonal contraception see desire and attraction return within about three months, giving you a reasonable testing window.