Summer Revely
Since the release of the first contraceptive pill in the 60s in the USA, which saw a staggering 1.2 million users in its first year on the market, being on contraception has become a staple in the lives of 150 million females across the globe.
The originally talked-about side effects of being a contraceptive user surrounded more physical symptoms, including nausea and blood clots, the risk of which is reduced with newer versions. But in recent years, the discussion has shifted more towards the effects of birth control on the brain and mental health. This has been promoted by an increased awareness across social media, and trending hashtags like #quittingbirthcontrol that have caused a stir. Here, we will consider the current evidence on this matter, and the science surrounding your brain on birth control.
THE MOST COMMON CONTRACEPTIVES ARE EITHER A COMBINED SUPPLY OF SYNTHETIC OESTROGEN AND PROGESTERONE, OR A PROGESTERONE-ONLY METHOD
First off, let’s understand how contraceptives actually work. The most common contraceptives are either a combined supply of synthetic oestrogen and progesterone, or a progesterone-only method. Both of these methods ultimately work to shift the hormonal balance to prevent pregnancy. However, these hormones don’t just affect your body; they also influence your brain’s activity across many of its regions. This is because hormones are key regulators of neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine.
Think of your brain like a music festival. The neurotransmitters are the acts across the stages, each responsible for creating a different vibe. The hormones are the crew needed behind the scenes to make sure that everything goes to plan. When you supply your body with additional oestrogen and/or progesterone, the mood for the day is therefore also bound to shift. While there is a lot of conflicting evidence surrounding the links between contraceptives and mood, the biology of hormone action definitely suggests that there is something.
Many studies also imply that there is a link in contraceptive use with fluctuating mental health, arguably the biggest of which is one in Denmark, which tracked the mental health of over 1 million women, aged 15-34, for 14 years. Here, women taking the combined pill were 70% more likely to be prescribed antidepressants 6 months later, than those who had never taken contraceptives. This rose to 80% in progesterone-only users. This study was considered a ‘large cohort study’, meaning that it isn’t possible to prove that one thing directly causes another, but the stats certainly point to an association between contraceptive usage and worsened mental health.
YOUR GENETIC MAKE-UP AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS MASSIVELY DICTATE YOUR LEVELS OF HORMONES AND NEUROTRANSMITTERS, AND THEREFORE HOW SYNTHETIC HORMONES INTERACT WITH THEM.
One factor that hinders research progress in this field is the fact that everybody’s response to contraception is different. Going back to the festival analogy, each of the stages are different sizes, and everyone has an innately different number of crewmates. Your genetic make-up and environmental factors massively dictate your baseline levels of hormones and neurotransmitters, and therefore how synthetic hormones interact with them. You are likely to have a diverse response of side effects with a contraceptive to anyone that you know; make sure that you find one that works for you.
If you believe that your contraceptive is affecting your mood, be sure to contact a GP. It might be a simple fix as switching to a different method. In the meantime, the University of Nottingham has a wealth of mental health support resources that you can access here.
Summer Revely
Feature image courtesy of Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Nationaal Archief on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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