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Millions of women and teenage girls use oral contraception, but we are only now getting an idea of what effect these drugs have on our brains
By Teal Burrell
Hormonal birth control is effective in preventing pregnancy, but there may be some neurological trade-offs that we are only just learning about
Oral contraceptives have been effectively preventing pregnancy for more than 65 years, but it has only been in the past 10 that scientists – many of them women – have started to seriously examine what effect they have on the brain.
New research is showing that oral hormonal contraceptives may alter the risk of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, affect the brain’s response to stress and change the structure of certain brain regions. Evidence presented at the European…
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