Women can be friends to men, but men can not be our friends. At least I have never seen it work out and all my guy friends always stopped talking to me when I got into a relationship. I am convinced men always have ulterior motives, because they just don't enjoy the company of women unless there is the possibility of sex on the horizon or they enjoy oogling her. I also have never seen a man be friends with a fat woman, which undermines my beliefs. It is what it is.
An exception to this might be if the friendship is like a mommy replacement figure and is doing emotional labour for the guy so much that it makes it worth for him to keep her around just to have someone to whine too. But one sided friendships like this aren't really "friendship".
I think I drafted and deleted a comment the other day on this. I have typically had a lot of guy/men friends - more than women, by the numbers. At some point in the not too distant past, after some serious self-examination, I took a fresh look at these men/friendships. Bottom line: an objective look showed that those friendships were, by and large, either superficial, vampiric [my bad for getting gassed up by successfully helping people through really rough times], or a "maybe there's a chance/maybe she'll fuck me; lemme keep pushing and trying" situation - or a combo. In short, not worthy of my effort or time. I dumped/discarded every single one of them, a couple with commentary owing to our history, mostly just blanking them. And nothing of value was lost. In fact, immense gain, because my emotional labor output nosedived toward feckless twits and got reallocated to things that actually enhance my life.
I don't like to speak or think in broad, unqualified generalizations, but damn if there isn't something to it.
Never been on the pill because it can cause weight gain. I know there's other options.
I think that anything hormonal may carry some possibility of weight gain, but for most it is very temporary or not at all. But my experience/views are these:
1. If my recollection^ is correct, and if the potential for or potential amount of weight gain correlates to the amount or type of hormones used, do know that the level of hormones in today's pill is a tiny fraction of what it once was. This article seems to confirm my recollection on both points.
2. To the above point, I first went on bcp ~30 years ago, when hormone levels in bcp were much higher. If there was any weight gain attributable to the pill, I personally didn't notice it and/or it was brief. I'll also add that my (anecdotal, obvs) experience was that I didn't experience any change or struggle when I switched pills or took a break then went back on.
3. After having each baby* I went back on birth control and had no issue getting back my pre-baby body even being kind of a sloth, between an insane work schedule and caring for kids (and to be clear I am not one of those enviable "I can eat whatever and just stay trim" women; I have always had to be intentional about it).
* As to the concern - very possibly real - that there may be a fertility lag after coming off hormonal birth control, my personal experience was no. I got knocked up in the first month or two of trying . Ymmv.
4. Any weight gain resulting from hormonal birth control is almost always less than the 25-35 lb common weight increase during pregnancy
None of that^ is meant to tell you what you "should" be doing, just information and personal experience. I highly highly highly recommend every sexually active woman use birth control that
she controls, whenever possible and not contraindicated for specific medical reasons. I would never, ever trust a man to manage that or otherwise rely solely on an "optional" method. (And don't get me started on the NFP people I know with more kids than intended.). So whatever you do,
please protect and take care of yourself first and foremost.