Hormoninės kontracepcijos įtaka moterų kognityviosioms funkcijoms

Hormonal contraception (HC) – one of the most popular methods of contraception, acts centrally and peripherally to inhibit follicular growth, reduce overall endogenous sex steroids levels and prevent monthly fluctuations. A lot of structures in CNS, including the areas related to cognition, are affected by sex steroid hormones. In present study we investigated the influence of HC and composition of HC on cognitive functions. There were young, healthy women, having natural regular menstrual cycle at the one group of our study. The second group was collected from women who used hormonal contraception. Half of hormonal contraception users used HC with androgenic, and the other half – with anti-androgenic properties. The results of present study showed that women who used HC with androgenic properties performed worse on verbal (verbal fluency) and slower on spatial (mental rotation) tasks. In addition, the increasing difficulty of spatial task significantly worsened performance in HC users group and had little effect in nonusers group. There were no memory and mood differences between HC users and nonusers. However comparison of personality traits showed that neuroticism is less and extraversion is more expressed in HC users as compared to nonusers