Oral contraception alters your brain

I found this article floating across my facebook page today titled Oral Contraceptive Pill Could Be Altering The Physical Structure Of Your Brain. Apparently, there was another one by the same author a couple months ago titled similarly that didn’t make very far Contraceptive Pill Associated With Changes In Brain Structure.

Some of the sciencec is quite interesting. This is from the second article:

Many women, however, experience unpleasant side effects, ranging from mood changes to androgenic effects, such as acne and unwanted hair growth. The latter are caused by the fact that some progestins (the synthetic versions of the hormone progesterone used in oral contraceptives) interact with androgen receptors. The androgens, such as testosterone, are steroid hormones that are responsible for male characteristics. Some progestins have high androgenic activity and therefore increase the chances of androgen-related side effects, but many more modern pills actually exert anti-androgenic effects.

So perhaps the “masculinization” of women was not all due to feminism pushing women toward being strong and independent, ambitious, leaders, and whatnot. Part of that may have been due to oral contraception use.

Some of the more interesting science is obviously on mate selection.

and one study even found it could influence a woman’s choice of partner.

Inside that study link:

“Ovulating women exhibit a preference for more masculine male features, are particularly attracted to men showing dominance and male-male competitiveness and prefer partners that are genetically dissimilar to themselves. This is significant because there is evidence suggesting that genetic similarity between couples might be linked with infertility. Further, some studies have suggested that men detect women’s fertility status, preferring ovulating women in situations where they can compare the attractiveness of different women.”

[…]

“Of particular interest is the fact that women taking the pill do not exhibit the ovulation-specific attraction to genetically dissimilar partners. “The ultimate outstanding evolutionary question concerns whether the use of oral contraceptives when making mating decisions can have long-term consequences on the ability of couples to reproduce,” suggests Dr. Lummaa.”

Now this is the good stuff.

Contraception basically mimics pregnancy. During pregnancy, women tend to prefer “beta” or “comfort traits” from a partner such as loyalty, being nice, provision, protection, and similar qualities as it signals that men will stick around. This indicates that women will tend to select “beta males” for mate choices prior to marriage.

However, once they get married and come off the contraception and try to get pregnant their repulsion to their spouse is magnified. Especially once they get pregnant for real. Not to mention the fact that it alters selection for mates which may result in infertility, aside from the other infertility from STDs.

Now we’re seeing with many women “chose” to marry men they weren’t really attracted to in the first place. And why divorce is common after a woman comes off birth control and gets pregnant with kids. Her brain thought her spouse was attractive when he wasn’t. I suppose you could liken this to what “beer googles” does for both sexes… it makes you attracted to the members of the opposite sex you would never ask out if you were sober. If you’re a man who likes Scarlett Johansson curves and then you suddenly wake up next to a woman who’s 300 lbs you’d probably be disgusted too.

That’s not even the most surprising part though in my opinion.

As described in Human Brain Mapping, the researchers found that two particular regions, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, tended to be thinner in those who were taking oral contraceptive pills. The lateral orbitofrontal cortex helps us regulate emotions and is thought to allow us to adapt our behavior in response to rewards or adversities, while the posterior cingulate cortex helps us evaluate our internal states. The researchers told Huffington Post that changes to the former could help to explain why some women experience negative emotional side effects, such as anxiety and depression, when they commence the pill.

Ah, so the particular regions of the brain that are thinned — or rather atrophied — and became dysfunctional are the parts of the brain that “[help] us regulate emotions and is thought to allow us to adapt our behavior in response to rewards or adversities” and “evaluate our internal states.” Also, some women “experience negative emotional side effects, such as anxiety and depression, when they commence the pill.

Am I the only one who sees the irony here? Basically,

• Women have a more difficult time “regulating their emotions” which means that they go more feral: they’re at the whims of their behavior not chained to any type of logic or reason.
• Women have a more difficult time seeing the results of “actions and consequences” in terms of reward and adversity
• Women have a difficult time evaluating their “internal state”… or in other words they’re desensitized to evaluating it so what they feel is their only reality. They can’t evaluate whether that’s true or false. Solipsism.

You can’t make this stuff up folks.

And this article doesn’t even mention that some cancers are increased by hormonal contraception use.

Naturally occurring estrogen and progesterone have been found to influence the development and growth of some cancers. Because birth control pills contain female hormones, researchers have been interested in determining whether there is any link between these widely used contraceptives and cancer risk.

The results of population studies to examine associations between oral contraceptive use and cancer risk have not always been consistent. Overall, however, the risks of endometrial and ovarian cancer appear to be reduced with the use of oral contraceptives, whereas the risks of breast, cervical, and liver cancer appear to be increased (1). A summary of research results for each type of cancer is given below.

Generally, I find that whenever man tries to mess with complex biological systems it doesn’t usually end up that well. We can see this with the food we eat. But apparently, many are blind to the hubris of messing with the human body.

There are other maladies of contraception depending on a woman’s individual body as well. Copper IUDs apparently can make your body go bonkers.

Conclusion: never use hormonal contraception. It’s said to be safe, but it isn’t.