ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2014
50 years of hormonal contraception-time to find out, what it does to our brain.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 150 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Risk of Attempted and Completed Suicide: a Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2020Pooled it
- The Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives on the Brain: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Triple network model of brain connectivity changes related to adverse mood effects in an oral contraceptive placebo-controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2023Trial
- The effect of a dopamine antagonist on conditioning of sexual arousal in women.Psychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Linking brain structure to stress reactivity: cingulate surface area predicts acute cortisol responses.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Hormonal contraceptives and EEG biomarkers for antidepressant treatment response in women.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Linking hair cortisol and life stress: The role of stress reactivity and habituation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Linking combined oral contraceptive use to systemic immune marker profiles: the role of cortisol.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Hormonal contraceptives during adolescence impact the female brain and behavior in a rat model.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Oral Contraceptive Use Is Associated with Significant Differences in MicroRNA Cargo of L1CAM-Associated Extracellular Vesicles.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Idiosyncrasy and generalizability of contraceptive- and hormone-related functional connectomes across the menstrual cycle.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- The relationship between hormonal contraceptives, level of anxiety and emotional awareness: pilot project.Physiological research · 2024Article
- Beyond Birth Control: The Neuroscience of Hormonal Contraceptives.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Review
- Hormonal Contraceptive Influence on Baseline Vestibular/Ocular Symptomatology and Provocation for Concussion.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2024Article
- The link between daily affective complexity and anxiety is altered by oral contraceptive use.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Hormonal contraceptive use is associated with differences in women's inflammatory and psychological reactivity to an acute social stressor.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- Lower levels of the neuroprotective tryptophan metabolite, kynurenic acid, in users of estrogen contraceptives.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Major depression associated with a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system mimicking frontotemporal dementia: a case report.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Hormonal contraceptive exposure relates to changes in resting state functional connectivity of anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- How Different Factors in Combination Change Fear Extinction Learning: The Case of Sex and Stress Hormones.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hormonal contraceptives are on the market for more than 50 years and used by 100 million women worldwide. However, while endogenous steroids have been convincingly associated with change in brain structure, function and cognitive performance, the effects of synthetic steroids contained in hormonal contraceptives on brain and cognition have barely been investigated. In this article we summarize the sparse findings, describing brain structural, functional and behavioral findings from the literature and suggest that synthetic steroids may contribute to masculinizing as well as feminizing effects on brain and behavior. We try to identify methodological challenges, explain, how results on endogenous steroids may transfer into research on hormonal contraceptives and point out factors that need to be controlled in the study of hormonal contraceptive dependent effects. We conclude that there is a strong need for more systematic studies, especially on brain structural, functional and cognitive changes due to hormonal contraceptive use. The hormonal contraceptive pill is the major tool for population control. Hence, such behavioral changes could cause a shift in society dynamics and should not stay unattended.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.