A new study finds that oral contraceptives appear to change an important part of the brain, but experts say the results aren't 'game-changing.'
Oral contraceptives — one of the most popular forms of birth control in the U.S. — appear to be changing an important part of the brain, according to a new study presented at the Radiological Society of North America.
"We found a dramatic difference in the size of the brain structures between women who were taking oral contraceptives and those who were not," the study author’s Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, professor of radiology at the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and medical director of MRI Services at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, told ScienceDaily.
“It’s hard to draw cause and effect,” Schaffir says. “They’re just associations and don’t necessarily mean the pill is what’s causing it. And it doesn’t mean they should stop taking the pill.” “I don’t think it’s terribly significant,” says Schaffir. He explains that the hypothalamus makes hormones that signal the pituitary gland, telling it when and how much hormone to make. But birth control pills take over part of that job, telling the pituitary gland to make fewer hormones, which helps prevent ovulation. “So it’s not really all that surprising — you’d expect the hypothalamus to be a little less active in that capacity,” he says. “It happens to anything that’s not being used.
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