Contraceptive pills might impair fear signals in women’s brains

More than 150 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives. Combined OCs (COCs), made up of synthetic hormones, are the most common type.

Sex hormones are known to modulate the brain network involved in fear processes.

Now a team of researchers in Canada has investigated the current and lasting effects of COC use, as well as the role of body-produced and synthetic sex hormones on fear-related brain regions, the neural circuitry via which fear is processed in the brain.