The Effects of Hormone Contraceptives on Cognition in Young Women

Abstract

The goals of this study were to examine the effects of hormone contraceptives and menstruation on cognitive performance in young women. The object array task assessed object memory and a mental rotations test assessed spatial ability in women taking hormone contraceptives and naturally cycling women. Participants consisted of 59 women ranging in age from 18-25. Subjects first completed an object array task where they were shown a series of multiple objects on an array and then asked to mark objects that had moved locations from the original array to test object location memory. Next, women were given a 24 question mental rotations task to assess spatial ability. Lastly, women completed the final object array task where they were asked to identify objects that were new to the array to test memory for object identity. Results demonstrated that women taking hormone contraceptives were significantly better at identifying novel objects on an object array than naturally cycling women. However, there were no significant differences in spatial ability performance on the mental rotations test or object location memory on the object array task in women taking hormone contraceptives and natural cycling women. There were also no significant differences on either task between naturally cycling women who were menstruating and those who were not menstruating during testing. The results of this study suggest that women taking hormone contraceptives outperformed naturally cycling women in recalling the identities of objects. The findings from this study help to further demonstrate the relationship between ovarian hormones and cognitive performance, as well as add to the understanding of how hormone contraceptives affect cognition.