Contraceptive pill enhances the brain's conversation hub


Brain Research showed the contraceptive pill enhances the brain's "conversation hub".

Grey matter essential for memory and social skills also grows in size.

This is the first study that has looked at the impact of the contraceptive pill on the brain. It found that the contraceptive pill of choice of 3.5 million British women – a quarter of all 16 to 49-year-olds – increases brain size by around 3 per cent.

Scientists took images of the brains of 14 men and 28 women, half of whom were on the Pill.

The women not on it were scanned more than once to allow for routine hormonal fluctuations.

Several areas of the brains of women taking the medication were larger than those not taking the contraceptive pill.

No matter which formulation of the hormonal drug, or how long it had been prescribed for, the results were the same.

The growth occurred in regions that scans showed to already be larger in women compared to men, such as those involved in conversation.

However, the contraceptive pill appeared to have little effect on areas more dominant in men, including those associated with skills such as map-reading.

Dr Belinda Pletzer, of Salzburg University, said the sex hormones in the Pill were clearly having a "tremendous effect" on the female brain.

"Larger volumes of a brain area could lead to an improvement of the functions this area is responsible for," she said.

"Looking at the brain areas involved in our study, which are larger in Pill users compared to naturally cycling women, this could concern several higher order brain functions, especially memory and verbal skills. The behavioural changes due to contraceptive (pill) use are likely to affect those skills that are already better developed in women compared to men like, for example, memory."

Just how the Pill could have such an effect is not clear. But one theory is that the oestrogen or progesterone used to stop eggs from being released also strengthens the links between nerve cells in the brain.

Although some areas became bigger, the brain did not increase in overall size and it is not known whether these parts shrink to their original dimensions when a woman comes off the Pill.

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