Research: Contraceptive Pills Can Change Brain Forms

Synthetic steroids found in birth control pills can shrink a certain part of the female brain and change its function.

In 2015, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, United States, do brain scans to 90 women, whether using birth control pills or not. They found that women taking birth control pills had an orbifrontal cortex and a thinner cingulate posterior cortex.

Both parts of the brain are related to emotional settings, decision-makers, and reward responses.
This explains why women who use contraceptives in the form of pills tend to more easily feel anxious and depressed.

"Some women experience negative feelings when using birth control pills. However, the results of this discovery are still diverse, "said study author Nicole Petersen, as quoted by The Huffington Post.

"Therefore, it is possible that changes in the orbifrontal cortex are related to emotional changes felt by some women when using birth control pills," he continued.

A study conducted in Austria in 2010 found that when using birth control pills, the part of the brain associated with learning, memory, and emotional regulation actually thickened. However, the results of this study did not trace whether when no longer using birth control pills will change the shape of the brain again.

In the journal Human Brain Mapping, researchers say, "More research is still needed to find out whether cortical thinning in this region affects behavioral changes, and also needs to be identified whether or not the birth control pills directly affect morphological changes in the brain."

Although there is evidence that birth control pills can cause brain changes in some women, birth control pills need not panic. Because there is no evidence that these changes are harmful and more research is still needed on the effects of birth control pills on the brain.