2023-06-20 14:42:08
Does the birth control pill affect women’s mental health? Already losing momentum among young people, a Swedish study provides a worrying answer that is not likely to reassure the most refractory.
The pill is increasingly contested, although it remains the first choice of contraception in France behind the condom and the IUD. In addition to causing weight gain, bleeding, or mood disorders in some women, the contraceptive pill would affect women’s mental health. In an attempt to measure the credibility of this causal link, a large-scale Swedish study published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences analyzed nearly 260,000 medical records of women, from birth to menopause, extracted from the UK Biobank. Their results are clear: the contraceptive pill increases the risk of depression by 73%, especially during the first 2 years following the start of treatment.
Teenage girls are most at risk
Researchers at Uppsala University, the oldest in Scandinavia, explain that this side effect is linked to hormones. “These results might be explained by the hormonal fluctuations induced by the initiation of oral contraceptive pills (OC), which can affect women particularly sensitive to changes in hormone levels and their metabolites“, can we read in their report. According to them once more, patients who started using these tablets at an early age had depressive symptoms 130% higher than adult users, in whom the risks nevertheless remain. equally concerning (92%).”Furthermore, the use of CO during theadolescence may increase the risk of depression later in life”they point out.
Improving the dialogue on contraception
To verify this causal link, the scientists compared this incidence among 7,354 siblings, in which one or more sisters had taken the same pill. Here once more, the results provide new evidence: within the same family, people on the pill developed more depressive disorders than those who did not take them. This study, which aimed to take into account women who stop the pill because of adverse effects on mood, is not intended to give bad press to the contraceptive. “Birth control pills allow women to avoid unwanted pregnancies and can also prevent diseases that affect women, including ovarian cancer and uterine cancer“says Therese Johansson, one of the authors and the department of immunology, genetics and pathology at Uppsala University. However, experts wish that women might benefit from better awareness of the side effects of the pill before any prescription.”Individualized risk-benefit assessments should be performed“, they claim.
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