The contraceptive pill has all kinds of psychological side effects that most women are not aware of. The pill can affect your stress response, but also your partner choice. Professor of evolutionary psychology Sarah Hill tells about this in de Volkskrant.
Hormones
“The pill keeps you in the second half of your cycle,” she explains about the effect of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone in the pill. “And that part of the cycle influences how much you want to have sex, how much you feel attracted to your partner and how attractive you are to men yourself. Those are all psychological effects. “
Different version of yourself
“Hormones are signal substances that determine what we do, what we feel, who we are, what preferences we have in the body and in your brain. The pill changes your hormone profile, so you are a different version of yourself, “said Hill. “Is that good or bad? That is a value judgment. You have to assess that yourself. How do you feel about the pill? “
The professor mentions an example. “I know women who were on the pill when they got to know their partner, and who, after stopping the pill, discovered that the partner did not suit them that way. There aren’t many women who feel so different, but if that happens to you, that’s quite something. “
Less fancy sex
She does not know how many women really feel different because of the use of the pill. “I don’t have any numbers. Research always involves population averages: in general, women are on the pill less like sex than women who do not take the pill, they prefer fewer male faces and their body reacts differently to a stressful situation. But there is a lot of variation. For many women these things do not apply, or on the pill they are more attracted to their partner. “
Stress reaction
But the pill can influence not only the choice of partner but also the stress response. “People who experience chronic stress no longer have an acute stress response, with that short-term cortisol peak. Women on the pill who experience stress also have less or no cortisol peak. So that looks the same as with people with post-traumatic stress. That is worrying. “
Sources): De Volkskrant
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