Birth Control Pills Can Change Memory

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Birth control pills have a wide range of effects on a woman's body. The new contraceptives are made with evolved progesterones. Thus these new oral contraceptives do not cause harmful impacts like weight gain or damage to the ovaries. But these pills are basically hormones and anything to do with hormones does effect you. It has been proved in a recent research that birth control pills change the course of human memory.

Types Of Human Memory:

There are basically 2 types of human memory; one is logical and the other emotional. Logical memory or the ability to remember facts is related to the right side of the brain. The ability to remember details comes from the left brain. We know it from gender stereotypes and scientific research that men tend to remember facts more than details. It is the opposite for women.

Who do Birth Control Pills Affect Memory?

When a women is on contraceptive pills, the type of memory she has changes. Her memory becomes more like a man. She can remember facts and logical sequence of events much better than minute details. In short, she starts thinking like a man.

How Do We Know This?

A research by Shawn Nielsen at the University of California, Irvine indicates that contraceptive pills alter the course of human memory. A group of women were shown emotionally instigating a video of a little boy's accident. The women who were taking oral contraceptives remembered the sequence of events much better than the ones who were not on pills. On the other hand, the women who were not taking birth control pills remembered the minute details (like the colour of the boy's shirt) much better.

Why Does This Happen?

We often say that women are more 'emotional' than men. This difference is purely hormonal. When women experience an emotional event in their life, there female hormones namely estrogen and progesterone get spiked up. That is why they remember the unimportant details of the event much better than men.

Birth control pills suppress the production of estrogen and progesterone in the body. This is done to suppress ovulation and prevent a pregnancy. That is why women who are on the pill have a different perspective to their memory.

This research is still in its nascent stages. It does not mean women who are taking the hormone pills have impaired memory. The perspective of their memory is altered but not deficient.