The type of estrogen in hormonal birth control affects anxiety-like behaviors, with synthetic estrogen increasing anxiety in female rats more than natural estrogen or a control, while spatial memory remains unaffected. Research indicates that the type of estrogen in hormonal birth control impacts anxiety-like behaviors, with synthetic estrogen linked to increased anxiety in rats, highlighting the importance of estrogen type in contraceptive side effects. According to recent research conducted by Abigail Hegwood, M.
S., from the Prakapenka Lab and presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, ENDO 2024, in Boston, Massachusetts, the specific type of estrogen used in hormonal birth control could affect anxiety-like behaviors. “It is plausible that estrogen type is a key player in mood or cognitive related side effects of hormone-based contraceptive use,” said Alesia Prakapenka, Ph.
D., an assistant professor in the Biomedical Sciences program at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Ill. According to the CDC, 12.
6% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 49 reported using oral contraceptives from 2015 to 2017. Prakapenka and colleagues acknowledged that behavioral side effects are one of the reasons why many women stop taking combination birth control. The researchers sought to understand whether or not identifying an estrogen type matters when it comes to evaluating behaviors like anxiety and cognition.
Rat Model Study on Estrogen Types In this ra.