Women who used birth control as teens 130% more likely to be depressed

Women who used contraceptive pill as teenagers are 130% more likely to be depressed as adults, study suggests

• First time users as adults had a 92% higher risk of depression than never-users
• Researchers said certain pills exacerbate puberty-related hormonal changes
• READ MORE:  FDA could approve OTC birth control ‘mini pill’ by the summer

Women who start taking birth control pills as teens have a drastically higher risk of developing depression down the line than those who have never taken them.

A new study found that women who began taking an oral contraceptive (OC) before they turned 20 had a 130 percent higher rate of depression compared to never-users, while those who started taking an OC as an adult had a far lower depression risk at 92 percent.

The likelihood of developing birth control pill-linked depression was highest within the first two years of starting the contraceptive, but the rate at which women were being diagnosed with depression fell the longer they took an OC.

A history of ever having taken an oral contraceptive was associated with an overall higher rate of depression compared to those who had never taken one, though the risk of depression was less pronounced after two years of continued use. 

The research team, led by health experts at Uppsala University in Sweden, posited that the link could be blamed on the level of hormonal changes already wreaking havoc on a teen’s emotional well-being that are magnified by the addition of hormonal birth control.

The type of oral contraceptives considered in the study contain progestogen, a compound resembling the hormone progesterone, and estrogen

Therese Johansson, lead author of the study said: ‘The powerful influence of contraceptive pills on teenagers can be ascribed to the hormonal changes caused by puberty.

‘As women in that age group have already experienced substantial hormonal changes, they can be more receptive not only to hormonal changes but also to other life experiences.’

The study, one of the largest and widest-ranging to date, encompassed nearly 265,000 women who were part of the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort that recruited 500,000 participants in the United Kingdom aged 37 to 71 years between 2006 and 2010.

Ms Johansson, a PhD candidate, added: ‘It is important to emphasize that most women tolerate external hormones well, without experiencing negative effects on their mood, so combined contraceptive pills are an excellent option for many women.

‘However, certain women may have an increased risk of depression after starting to use contraceptive pills.’

Though the incidence of depression in adult women fell after about two years of routinely taking an OC, that similar incidence remained high among teens even after they stopped taking it.

Mood disturbance is a common complaint among women taking hormonal birth control pills considered in the study, which contain estrogen and a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone called progestogen.

Can the Pill turn you GAY? Women report the bizarre symptom 

A growing number of women have spoken out about what is probably the most unlikely side effect of birth control yet – they say the oral contraceptives have altered their sexuality to favor more feminine-looking features. 

Progestogen prevents ovulation and thickens cervical mucous, which prevents sperm from entering the uterus. 

And estrogen thins the uterine lining, further hindering the implantation of a fertilized egg, thus preventing pregnancy about 99 percent of the time. 

One study in JAMA Psychiatry conducted by experts at the University of Copenhagen in 2016 reported that among more than a million Danish women, the ones using hormonal contraceptives were found to be at 0.9 to 1.9 times greater risk of a first-time diagnosis with depression.

Teen girls had an even higher risk ranging from 1.2 times to 3.2 times, but researchers acknowledged that this could be attributed to the age group being generally more prone to depression symptoms.

On the other hand, a wealth of evidence has piled up over the years to show that birth control pills can actually improve mood and emotional health

In a 2013 report in the American Journal of Epidemiology, American doctors studied the effects of contraception in a sample of more than 6,600 sexually active non-pregnant women.

They found users of hormonal contraceptives had lower average levels of depressive symptoms and were less likely to have attempted suicide in the previous year compared to women who took non-hormonal birth control and those who took nothing at all.

And a 2003 study conducted by doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that a fraction of 658 women taking oral contraceptives – slightly over 16 percent – saw their mood worsen on the pill. 

But the vast majority of them, more than 71 percent saw no changes to their mood at all.

The latest study out of Sweden only considered hormonal birth control pills containing two types of female hormones and did not include other forms of contraception such as IUDs, vaginal rings, or mini pills containing only progestin.

The study also included a generally healthy and overwhelmingly white population in the UK, which the authors said could undercut the degree to which their findings apply to a broader context of contraception side effects.

Their findings were published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 

There are roughly 73 million American women of reproductive age ranging from 15 to 49 and a majority of them use at least one form of contraception, which could include hormonal OCs as well as condoms and IUDs. 

Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that from 2015 to 2017, nearly 65 percent of women used birth control in some form.  

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