# Sensemaking About Contraceptive Methods Across Online Platforms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.09295 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.09295/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 4 of its 94 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Jan 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Is Automated Topic Model Evaluation Broken?: The Incoherence of Coherence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02173/) (2021)
- [Quantifying Intimacy in Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.03020/) (2020)
- [This Sample seems to be good enough! Assessing Coverage and Temporal Reliability of Twitter's Academic API](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02290/) (2022)
- [Quantifying Community Characteristics of Maternal Mortality Using Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.06303/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Selecting a birth control method is a complex healthcare decision. While birth control methods provide important benefits, they can also cause unpredictable side effects and be stigmatized, leading many people to seek additional information online, where they can find reviews, advice, hypotheses, and experiences of other birth control users. However, the relationships between their healthcare concerns, sensemaking activities, and online settings are not well understood. We gather texts about birth control shared on Twitter, Reddit, and WebMD -- platforms with different affordances, moderation, and audiences -- to study where and how birth control is discussed online. Using a combination of topic modeling and hand annotation, we identify and characterize the dominant sensemaking practices across these platforms, and we create lexicons to draw comparisons across birth control methods and side effects. We use these to measure variations from survey reports of side effect experiences and method usage. Our findings characterize how online platforms are used to make sense of difficult healthcare choices and highlight unmet needs of birth control users.