Millions of women who take hormonal contraceptives may be at greater risk of memory loss, worrying research suggests.
Experts say that women who use birth control methods such as the pill, implant or patch tend to remember different aspects of an event compared to those who have a natural menstrual cycle.
By altering a woman's hormonal balance, this drug affects the way she remembers unpleasant information.
According to American researchers, women who take these drugs are less likely to remember details of a negative event, interpreting the event differently to mitigate the emotional impact.
Scientists today, who called the findings "significant", said that remembering fewer details "may actually be protective".
However, they warned that further studies are needed to prove whether a link truly exists.
Beatriz Brandao, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and lead author of the study, said:
“For women, these findings highlight what many have long suspected—birth control can affect more than just reproductive health.
It does more than prevent pregnancy—it also affects areas of the brain associated with emotions and memory, which are essential for mental health.
We were surprised to find that when women using hormonal contraceptives applied strategies such as distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered fewer details of negative events.
This reduction in memory for unpleasant experiences may actually be protective.”
Dr Stephanie Leal, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University and co-author of the study, added:
"These findings are very exciting.
They suggest that hormonal birth control has the ability to modify both the way women regulate their emotions and the impact that this regulation has on memory, especially of negative experiences.”
The most common forms of hormonal contraceptives include the combined oral pill, the mini-pill (progesterone-only pill), the contraceptive patch, the vaginal ring, the progesterone injection, the hormonal implant, and the hormonal intrauterine device (IUD).
Besides natural family planning, condoms, non-hormonal IUDs, and diaphragms are some of the few non-hormonal options women can use.
In the study, researchers followed 179 women, half of whom used hormonal contraceptives and the other half had natural cycles.
About 79 of the 87 women using contraceptives were taking the pill.
Participants completed questionnaires to assess how effective they were at regulating their emotions, habits, and mental health.
They also viewed positive, negative and neutral images while applying different emotional regulation strategies, such as distancing, reinterpretation or immersion, and then completed a memory test.
Distancing involves mentally creating a distance from an emotional cause to gain a more objective perspective and reduce emotional intensity.
Meanwhile, immersion involves taking a fully involved perspective, immersing yourself in the image.
Researchers found that women who used hormonal contraceptives showed stronger emotional reactions compared to those with natural cycles.
When they used strategies such as distancing or reinterpretation, they also remembered fewer details of negative events, although overall memory remained intact.
Writing in the journal Hormones and Behavior, the scientists said:
“The use of hormonal contraceptives is associated with altered emotional reactivity, greater effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies, and consequences on certain types of memory.”
The findings for hormonal contraceptives were the same as those for women using the pill, suggesting that "these effects are evident even when the most common form of hormonal contraceptive is used."
"Our study encourages a comprehensive approach to women's health care that integrates psychological and cognitive considerations into the prescription and management of hormonal contraceptives," they write.
However, the researchers acknowledged that the study had "some limitations," including the fact that most women on contraceptives were only on the pill.
The study also did not accurately track the menstrual cycle phases of naturally cycling participants, limiting the researchers' ability to examine the role of hormonal fluctuations in emotion regulation and memory performance.
Scientists now plan to assess this impact by following naturally cyclic women through different phases of the menstrual cycle and comparing different types of hormonal contraceptives, such as the pill versus IUDs.
“Our ultimate goal is to understand how reproductive hormones—whether natural or synthetic—shape emotional health, so that women can make more informed decisions about their reproductive and mental health,” said Ms. Brandao.
Previous studies have shown a link between hormonal contraceptives and changes in brain function in areas responsible for motivation, emotions and attention.
Furthermore, estrogen levels, which are typically lower in users of hormonal contraceptives, play a key role in the function of the hippocampus, involved in controlling emotions as well as motivation.
Known side effects of the pill—which has been proven to be over 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy and is the most popular form of contraception—include nausea, breast tenderness, mood swings, and headaches.
Some claim they gain weight during use due to fluid retention and increased appetite, however the NHS says there is no evidence that it leads to weight gain.
Decades of research have failed to provide conclusive evidence that this supposed side effect is real.
However, rarer side effects include blood clots and a slightly higher risk of breast and cervical cancer.
Approximately three million women in the United Kingdom take the contraceptive pill, and about 11 million women in the US use hormonal contraceptives. /GazetaExpress/
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