The pill Shetty was prescribed stopped her periods entirely, and with it, she told DW, her sex drive vanished. The relationship between the birth control pill and women's libido has always been complicated. "I wanted to have more, safer sex," Mariel told DW. The pill increases levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which binds to so-called free testosterone in the body. "I was so up and down on the pill that I stopped and moved to [an intrauterine device]," she told DW.