How Contraceptives Affect Fear-Controlling Area of Women's Brain?

The fear-related brain morphology is influenced by both natural and contraceptive sex hormones, which relate to the fear-related mechanisms affecting women.

Synthetic sex hormones from COCs - Combined Oral Contraceptives as well as body-produced sex hormones affect the fear-related brain morphology and its associated neural circuit, which could deepen understanding of fear-related mechanisms that primarily affect women, according to a new study.

This study was conducted by researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada, and published in Frontiers in Endocrinology ().

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“In our study, we show that healthy women currently using COCs had a thinner ventromedial prefrontal cortex than men,” said Alexandra Brouillard, the lead researcher.

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“This part of the prefrontal cortex is thought to sustain emotion regulation, such as 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, for example, 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 continues into early adulthood, are rarely addressed. Considering how widespread COC use is, it is important to better understand its current and long-term effects on brain anatomy and emotional regulation, the researchers said.

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The team recruited women who were currently using COCs; women who used COCs previously but did not at the time of the study; women who never used any form of hormonal contraception; and men. Comparing these groups allowed the researchers to see if COC use was associated with current or long-term morphologic alterations as well as to detect sex differences since it is established that women are more susceptible to experiencing anxiety and stress-related disorders than men.

“As we report reduced cortical thickness of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in COC users compared to men, our result suggests that COCs may confer a risk factor for emotion regulation deficits during their current use,” Brouillard said.

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The impacts of COC use, however, may be reversible once intake is discontinued, the researchers said. Given that the vmPFC effect found in current users was not observed in past users, the findings did not support lasting anatomical effects of COC use. This, the researchers wrote, will need to be confirmed in further studies.

There is still much to learn when it comes to women’s brains and how they are impacted by COC use. For example, Brouillard and team are currently investigating the impact of age of onset and duration of use to delve further into the potential lasting effects of COCs. Given that many teenage girls start using COCs during adolescence, a sensitive period in brain development, user age might also impact reversibility.

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Pointing to limitations in their study, the scientists said that no causal relationship can be implied between COC use and brain morphology and that generalization of their results to a general population may be limited. The researchers also cautioned that drawing conclusions from anatomical findings to behavioral and psychological impact is not possible at this point.

Reference:

Morphologic alterations of the fear circuitry: the role of sex hormones and oral contraceptives - (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2023.1228504/full)

Source-Eurekalert