A new study published in Hormones and Behavior has a lot to say about, well, hormones and behavior.
Don't just take the British "Raw Egg" guy's word for it.
From Rice University:
[A]s many women will attest, [hormonal contraceptives] can affect more than the body. Mood changes, weight fluctuations and emotional ups and downs are common stories women share. But a new Rice University study finds the effects may be more complex — and in some ways, surprising.
The study, "Emotion regulation strategies differentially impact memory in hormonal contraceptive users" published in Hormones and Behavior, shows that hormonal contraceptives appear to shape how women experience emotions in the moment and how they remember emotional events later.
As the study's lead author admitted, hormonal birth control "does more than prevent pregnancy — it also influences brain areas involved in emotions and memory, which are central to mental health."
The researchers made the findings by comparing "women using hormonal contraceptives with women who were naturally cycling." The women "viewed positive, negative and neutral images while applying different emotion regulation strategies, such as distancing, reinterpretation or immersion, and later completed a memory test."
The results were rather determinative:
Women on hormonal contraceptives showed stronger emotional reactions compared to naturally cycling women. When they used strategies like distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered fewer details of negative events, though their general memory remained intact. In other words, they could recall the overall event but not all of the specifics
The researchers try to spin this in a positive light, suggesting that the memory gap "may actually be helpful, allowing women to move on instead of replaying unpleasant details."
Other studies have documented how birth control changes women's brains. From 2023:
To their credit, the scientists say they just want women to be able to make better-informed decision on this:
[O]ur goal is to understand how reproductive hormones — whether natural or synthetic — shape emotional health so that women can make more informed choices about their reproductive and mental health.
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