The birth control pill damaged the parts of the brain responsible for fear
Canadian scientists have found that taking combined hormonal oral contraceptives can lead to anatomical changes in the brain in women.It is known that the fair sex is more susceptible to anxiety and stress-related disorders than the male sex. At the same time, more than 150 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives. The most popular are combination products containing synthetic versions of sex hormones. Such hormones, however, affect the processes in the brain that are responsible for regulating feelings of fear.
Researchers from the Universities of Montreal and Quebec (Canada) decided to learn more about how this fact may be related to taking hormonal oral contraceptives. The researchers presented the findings of their work in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.
The authors analyzed both short-term and long-term effects of such drugs on the female body, particularly on the brain. The study involved ladies between the ages of 23 and 35. Some of them (62 people) reported that they were currently taking contraceptives, others (37) that they had done so previously, and 40 women - that they had never used such a method of avoiding unwanted pregnancy. The paper also used data from a study of 41 men.
The comparison of these groups was undertaken to see if oral contraceptive use was associated with current or long-term morphological changes in the subjects' brains.
The results of the study showed that in all three groups of ladies, as is typical for women, the surface volume of gray matter of the anterior cingulate gyrus of the brain was increased compared to men. This area is thought to be responsible for the emotion of fear, which men experience less frequently overall. Meanwhile, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (responsible for regulating feelings of fear) was found to be thinner in women who regularly took combined oral contraceptives than in men. The longer and more often a woman took contraceptives, the more pronounced this difference was.
The scientists believe that such changes in the brain may be reversible after contraceptive withdrawal, as the thinning of this part of the cortex was less pronounced in women who had previously used such drugs but then stopped using them.
The authors urged caution in interpreting the study. Their position is justified: the sample in the work is small, in addition, it is not clear how exactly to interpret the result obtained.
The brain has a pronounced neuroplasticity: the volume of certain areas in it can vary slightly even in a healthy person. Women taking combined oral contraceptives often live with a regular sexual partner, and from other studies it is known that in such cases the lady is less inherent anxiety. Accordingly, it is not entirely clear whether it is the effect of contraceptives on the areas of the brain associated with fear, or whether it is the lifestyle that provokes women to switch to the constant use of oral contraceptives.