The new research shows that birth control can do more than just prevent pregnancy

Research indicates that control of hormonal births can influence emotions and memory, shaping the daily reality of women around the world.

The hormonal contractual is a reality of life for millions of women. In the United States only, centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 60 million women of reproductive age have used a certain form of contraception. Although the main reason is to prevent pregnancy, many also count on it to help manage health conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and irregular menstrual cycles.

Beyond its physical effects, many women say that birth control influences their emotional well-being. Mood changes, weight changes and periods of emotional turbulence are commonly shared experiences. Now, new research from Rice University suggest that the impact can go further, affecting both emotions and memory unexpectedly.

According to the study, which appears in the review Hormones and behaviorHormonal contraceptives seem to influence the way women treat emotions in the moment as well as the way they remember emotional experiences later.

“For women, the results highlight what many suspect for a long time: birth control can affect more than reproductive health,” said Beatriz Brandao, a graduate student of the Psychological Sciences of Rice and the main study of the study. “The hormonal contraception does more than preventing pregnancy – it also influences the brain areas involved in emotions and memory, which are at the heart of mental health.”

How the study worked

Researchers compared women using hormonal contraceptives with women who naturally bicycle. Participants saw positive, negative and neutral images while applying different emotional regulation strategies, such as distancing, reinterpretation, N or immersion, and then carried out a memory test.

Women under hormonal contraceptives have shown stronger emotional reactions compared to women on a bicycle naturally. When they used strategies such as distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered less details on negative events, although their general memory has remained intact. In other words, they could remember the global event but not all the details. This difference can actually be useful, allowing women to move on instead of replaying unpleasant details. Strategies and immersion have increased memory for positive images in the two groups, which means that happy moments stick more clearly.

The results add weight to a question that many women have had, but few studies have answered: how does birth control affect the body but the mind? The regulation of emotions and memory are linked to mental health results such as depression, and this research suggests that hormonal contraceptives can influence these processes in a subtle but significant manner.

Researchers’ prospects

“We were surprised to note that when the women under contractulation hormonal used strategies such as distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered less details on negative events,” said Brandao. “This reduced memory for unpleasant experiences can be protective.”

“These results are new and highlight the way in which hormonal contraceptives can influence the processes of emotion and memory in a significant way,” said Bryan Denny, associate professor of psychological sciences in Rice and co-author of the study. “Beatriz’s work is underway and programmatic, allowing a continuous study of these processes in women taking hormonal contraceptives as well as in women on a bicycle naturally.”

“These results are very exciting,” said Stephanie Leal, deputy deputy professor of psychological sciences in Rice, assistant professor at UCLA and the main study of the study. “They suggest that control of hormonal births has the capacity to modulate both how women can regulate their emotions as well as the way in which this regulation can influence memory, in particular towards negative experiences.”

Brandao and his collaborators plan to extend work by naturally studying women on bicycle to different menstrual phases and comparing the types of hormonal contraceptives, such as pills against IUDs.

“In the end, our goal is to understand how reproductive – natural or synthetic hormones – shape emotional health so that women can make more informed choices on their reproductive and mental health,” said Brandao.

Reference: “Emotional regulation strategies have a different impact in memory in hormonal contraceptives users” by Beatriz M. Brandao, Madelyn Castro, Jacob B. Buergler, Kayla R. Clark, Bryan T. Denny and Stephanie L. Leal, August 14, 2025, Hormones and behavior.
DOI: 10.1016/J.yhbeh .2025.105805

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