Oral contraceptives are used by more than 150 million women worldwide. The most common variety is combined OCs (COCs), which are made from synthetic hormones. Sex hormones have been shown to influence the brain network involved in fear processing.
A Canadian team of researchers has now explored the current and long-term consequences of COC use, as well as the influence of natural and synthetic sex hormones on fear-related brain areas, the neural circuits by which fear is processed in the brain.
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“In our study, we show that healthy women currently using COCs had thinner ventromedial prefrontal cortex than men,” said Alexandra Brouillard, a researcher at the University of Quebec in Montreal and first author of the study. published in Frontiers in Endocrinology.
“This part of the prefrontal cortex is thought to support emotion regulation, including decreasing fear signals in the context of a safe situation. Our result may represent a mechanism by which COCs could impair emotion regulation in women .”
“When prescribed COCs, girls and women are informed of various physical side effects, such as that the hormones they will be taking will abolish their menstrual cycle and prevent ovulation,” Brouillard explained. However, the effects of sex hormones on brain development, which continue into early adulthood, are rarely addressed. Given the scale of COC use, it is important to better understand its current and long-term effects on brain anatomy and emotional regulation, the researchers said.
The team recruited women who were currently using COCs; women who previously used COCs but were not doing so at the time of the study; women who have never used any form of hormonal contraception; and men.
Comparing these groups allowed researchers to see if COC use was associated with current or long-term morphological alterations as well as detect differences between the sexes since it is established that women are more susceptible than men. men suffer from anxiety and stress-related disorders.
“As we report reduced cortical thickness of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in COC users compared to men, our results suggest that COCs may confer a risk factor for emotion regulation deficits during current use,” Brouillard said. .
The impacts of COC use, however, may be reversible once use is stopped, the researchers said. Because the vmPFC effect observed in current users was not observed in previous users, the results do not support lasting anatomical effects of COC use. This, the researchers write, will need to be confirmed in future studies.
There is still much to learn about the women’s brain and how COC use impacts it. For example, Brouillard and his team are currently studying the impact of age of onset and duration of use to further explore the potential long-term effects of COCs. Since many adolescent girls begin using COCs during adolescence, a sensitive period of brain development, the age of the user could also impact reversibility.
Highlighting the limitations of their study, the scientists said that no causal relationship can be implied between COC use and brain morphology and that generalization of their findings to a general population might be limited. The researchers also cautioned that it is not possible at this stage to draw conclusions from the anatomical findings about the behavioral and psychological impact.
“The objective of our work is not to counter the use of COCs, but it is important to be aware that the pill can have an effect on the brain. Our goal is to increase scientific interest in women’s health and raise awareness of early prescribing of COCs. COC and brain development, a very little-known subject,” concludes Brouillard.
This story was published from a wire feed without modifications to the text. Only the title has been changed.
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