We all know the girl who likes to party, drink every weekend and has a tendency of getting a little carried away with guys that don’t typically care for anything more than a one night stand. As if you don’t already think lowly of her, you find out she’s on birth control. Your immediate reaction is “the pill is the only thing that’s saving her from getting pregnant,” or “she’s probably only taking the pill so she can have sex whenever she wants.” Ever since contraceptive pills were first invented, there have been people with cynical opinions towards birth control. The pill has many benefits though. What you don’t know is that the boy crazy party girl has actually been taking the pill since she was 14, and is on the pill to prevent the extremely painful menstrual cramps she would get during her irregular period.

Forms of contraception from abstinence to medication have been around for many years, but the birth control pill was approved in 1960 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and was actually first used to prevent menstrual cramps. President and Chief Executive of Planned Parenthood Tara Broderick states that 95 percent of women in the United States use the pill at some point in their life.

According to LiveScience and the FDA, the pill is the number one prescribed medicine in the world. There are other forms of birth control other than the common pill form though, and they still serve the same healthful purposes as the pill. Women have the opportunity to choose from over 70 different contraceptives today. The birth control ring, the shot and the patch are all just as reliable as the pill, and depending on the girl, maybe easier to remember than a tiny tablet each day.

We all know that birth control can give girls the freedom to have safe sex, and yes, it tends to spark sexual intentions, but it doesn’t deserve that negative reputation. Nemours, one of the largest nonprofit organizations devoted to teen health, states that the pill actually benefits females in many other ways, as it can prevent acne and protect against certain types of breast disease, anemia, ovarian cysts and ovarian and endometrial cancers. According to Mayo Clinic, it also regulates menstrual cycles and keeps it on a consistent schedule.

When hearing a girl is on birth control don’t automatically assume it’s because she’s in a serious relationship and wants to have sex freely, or that she’s a no-good party girl with bad intentions. Maybe bad facial acne is in her genetics, and the pill is helping her control it. Maybe she’s an athlete and all the exercising she does causes her to have an irregular period, but the pill has helped her to stay on a consistent schedule. The birth control pill has changed over the years, but according to historian Elaine Tyler May, most women do not begin taking it to prevent pregnancy.