Neuroscientist Carina Heller examines how your own brain changes during the menstrual cycle and with contraception. Their results shed light on the hormonal impact on the brain.
Neuroscientist Carina Heller sought to understand how the brain changes throughout the menstrual cycle, with or without the use of oral contraceptives. To do this, Heller scanned his brain 75 times over a year.
Preliminary results, presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual conference, suggest that brain morphology and connectivity vary daily throughout the natural cycle and are affected by birth control pills.
The female brain has been little studied, and the effects that contraceptives can have on it are not yet fully understood. Tired of this lack of knowledge, Heller decided to investigate the topic. This study, addressed in a publication of the journal Nature, could provide valuable information to women and doctors about the impact of this widespread medication.
The experiment
There are different methods for imaging the brain, but Carina Heller chose the “dense sampling” technique: collecting multiple brain scans to capture brain activity with high temporal precision, detecting rapid changes in different areas of the brain.
Heller performed 25 scans over 5 weeks, capturing images at different phases of her natural menstrual cycle. Months later, she started taking oral contraceptives, and after 3 months, she was scanned again 25 times in 5 weeks.
She then went off the pill and three months later returned for 25 scans in 5 weeks. At each session, he also had blood drawn and completed a questionnaire about his mood.
The images showed changes in brain volume and connectivity throughout their menstrual cycle. During the time she took the birth control pill, a slight decrease in volume and connectivity was observed. When Heller stopped the contraceptive, the brain largely returned to its original state, demonstrating the brain’s ability to adapt.
The contraceptive pill
Oral contraceptives usually contain synthetic versions of natural hormones such as progesterone and estrogen, which prevent pregnancy and prevent, among other things, the release of eggs.
The first oral contraceptive was approved in the United States in 1960. Currently, more than 150 million people of reproductive age use oral contraceptives, making them one of the most widely used medications in the world.
Many people start taking the pill during puberty, a crucial stage for brain maturation, so understanding its impact on neurodevelopment is essential, explained Kathryn Lenz, a behavioral neuroscientist at Ohio State University.
What’s next?
Heller plans to compare her data with that of a woman with endometriosis, a painful condition that affects up to 10% of women of reproductive age, to understand whether hormonal fluctuations in the brain could be driving this condition.
These data sets “will offer us a really fascinating window into the relationship between hormonal status and subtle changes in brain structure and behavioral functions,” Lenz concluded.
Source: DW.
