Davina McCall said she fears for her daughters taking the pill as she suggests taking contraception could have led to her heroin addiction.
The 55-year-old TV presenter is mum to Holly, 21, and Tilly, 19, as well as son Chester, 16, and has been at the forefront of a women’s health revolution in recent years.
Not only has Davina worked hard to tackle the menopause and empowered thousands of women to seek further help with their changing hormones, she’s now turned her attention to the contraceptive pill.
In her new Channel 4 documentary, Davina McCall: The Truth About The Pill, she investigates the invention of the contraceptive pill, as well as the wide ranging side effects women face while taking the pill.
During an interview with OK! Davina confessed she had started taking the pill when she was 15, as she was “madly in love with my first love”.
She decided to go against the wishes of her father, who wanted her to wait until she was 16, and took charge of her own body.
“So I took myself off to a sexual health clinic and they were very nice and very kind, and they suggested a pill and I took it,” Davina explained.
However, the former Big Brother host revealed she is concerned about how much of an impact synthetic hormones in the pill had on her mental health, and suggested it may have played a part in her taking recreational drugs in her teens.
“My life was quite chaotic and emotional at the time, as it is for many teenagers, and it’s very hard to say how much of a part the pill played in that. I’ve got no idea,” she stated.
Now, Davina is worried about the effects the pill will have on her daughters, and said she was shocked to discover that more than 60 years after the pill was invented, little research has been done on the debilitating side effects some women face.
“Both of my daughters took the pill, and one of them got on absolutely fine with it but my younger one had a terrible time in sixth form with her mental health and she has often wondered whether her pill contributed to that,” she explained.
While making the documentary has been an eye-opening experience for Davina, she’s also furious that no effort has been made to help women who are “still struggling” 60 years after the pill was invented.
“It makes me feel angry too because we deserve better. This is a conversation we have to have so let’s start a contraception revolution,” she fired.
Davina McCall: The Truth About The Pill is on Thursday 8 June, 9pm, Channel 4
