Pill raises risk of depression, especially in teenage girls

Around a quarter of women will suffer from depression—and an unsuspected cause could be the contraceptive pill.

The pill increases the risk of depression by 130 percent if the woman starts taking the contraceptive when she’s a teenager, and by 92 percent in older women—and, overall, by 73 percent in the first two years or so of using the pill.

Teenagers are especially impacted by the pill because they are still going through dramatic hormonal changes, say researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden.  “The powerful influence of contraceptive pills on teenagers can be ascribed to the hormonal changes caused by puberty,” said Therese Johansson, one of the researchers.

The researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank project, which tracked around 250,000 women from birth to menopause.  They looked at the women taking the pill and matched it against those who had been diagnosed with depression.

The rate of depression started to decline after the women had been taking the pill for two years.

What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community