Study shows contraceptive pill reduces the size of the important part of the brain

The pill along with the condom is the most commonly used contraceptives. In a survey conducted in the year 2018 to the University hospital of Erlangen, 86 percent of the women reported to take the pill.

The anti-baby pill has side effects, is now known. So, for example, the risk of thrombosis in women, the prevention of hormonally, extremely increased.

Depending on the type of the administered hormones Institute for drugs and medical products, according to the Federal the risk of developing a thrombosis in up to 12 out of 10,000.

But not only that. A new study by the research teams led by Dr. Professor Michael Lipton, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which was published in the ‘Radiological Society of North America, confirmed that the female brain is influenced by the years of taking the pill.

Pill reduces the size of the part of the Brain

The researchers from the USA have found in their study with the help of magnetic resonance tomography images (MRI), that in the case of women, the prevention of hormone, the Hypothalamus is smaller than in the case of subject inside the take no pill.

The Hypothalamus is a part of the midbrain and controls, among other things, breathing, circulation and body temperature. It is essential for the formation of various hormones responsible for and influenced such important processes of life in the body.

Also, sexual behavior, appetite, and mood, the Hypothalamus is influenced.

In the course of the study MRI-recordings were made of the 50 women, 21 of which are hormonally have prevented. It showed that the Hypothalamus in women taking the pill, was about six percent smaller than in women who do not use them.

“We have to take a dramatic distinction between the size of brain structures between women, oral contraceptives, and what not to do it,” says Dr. Michael Lipton, a Professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of medicine in New York City.

Effects on mood

Other results were classified as “preliminary”, shows that a reduction in the size of the Hypothalamus has an effect on the mood and may also be in connection with depressive symptoms can be.

A connection between the volume and cognitive performance was not found.

Lipton stresses that the study will show that oral, hormonal contraceptives can have an impact on the brain. Now, further studies have to find out exactly how the contraceptive pill works on brain areas and what are the consequences of the.

Sources

• Oppelt, P. (2018): Situation of Adolescent Contraceptive Use in Germany. Archived from the original on 06.12.2019 https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/a-0684-9838?articleLanguage=en#N69173
• The Federal Institute for drugs and medical devices (2018): Venous thromboembolism and combined hormonal contraceptives. Archived from the original on 06.12.2019. https://www.bfarm.de/DE/Arzneimittel/Pharmakovigilanz/KOK/_node.html
• Radiological Society of North America: Study Finds Key Brain Region is Smaller in Birth Control Pill Users. Archived from the original on 06.12.2019. https://press.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/14_pr_target.cfm?id=2136

Luisa High Brink

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