Women taking oral contraceptive pills they may be at increased risk of depression, especially soon after starting the pill.
That’s one of the findings of a large study of more than 264,000 women., which also found that adolescent girls are at the highest risk. In fact, women who were teenagers when they started using birth control pills had a 130% higher rate of depression.
Increase
The rate of increase among adult users was 92%, according to the study authors.
“The powerful influence of birth control pills on adolescents can be attributed to the hormonal changes caused by puberty,” dTherese Johansson, from the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University in Sweden, said in a press release.
“Since women in that age group have already undergone substantial hormonal changes, they may be more receptive not only to hormonal changes but also to other life experiences.” Johanson added.
Study
This new study, published in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, it adds to previous research that found a link between oral contraceptive use and depression.
A 2016 report in JAMA Psychiatry revealed that hormonal birth control use often it was related to subsequent use of prescription antidepressants or a diagnosis of depression.
And in 2019, another study found that 16-year-old girls taking oral contraceptives reported more crying, sleep irregularities, and feeding problems than adolescents of the same age who were not using oral contraceptives.
The last study used UK Biobank dataa biomedical database with health and genetic information from over half a million participants across the UK.
The researchers studied combined birth control pills, They contain progestin, a compound similar to the hormone progesterone, and estrogen.
Findings
The study revealed that increased rates of depression it decreased when women continued to use birth control pills after the first two years.
But teen birth control pill users still had a higher rate of depression even after stopping the pill. That effect was not seen in adult users of the pill.
Despite these risks, the study authors noted that most women use hormonal birth control with few or no adverse side effects.
“It is important to emphasize that most women tolerate external hormones well, without experiencing negative effects on their mood.so combined birth control pills are an excellent option for many women”Johansson said.