No evidence that women using oral contraceptives have weaker preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Marcinkowska UM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6328097 | biostudies-literature | 2019
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
No evidence that women using oral contraceptives have weaker preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces.
Marcinkowska Urszula M UM Hahn Amanda C AC Little Anthony C AC DeBruine Lisa M LM Jones Benedict C BC
PloS one 20190110 1
Previous research has suggested that women using oral contraceptives show weaker preferences for masculine men than do women not using oral contraceptives. Such research would be consistent with the hypothesis that steroid hormones influence women's preferences for masculine men. Recent large-scale longitudinal studies, however, have found limited evidence linking steroid hormones to masculinity preferences. Given the relatively small samples used in previous studies investigating putative assoc ...[more]
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Project description:Importance:Oral contraceptives have been associated with an increased risk of subsequent clinical depression in adolescents. However, the association of oral contraceptive use with concurrent depressive symptoms remains unclear. Objectives:To investigate the association between oral contraceptive use and depressive symptoms and to examine whether this association is affected by age and which specific symptoms are associated with oral contraceptive use. Design, Setting, and Participants:Data from the third to sixth wave of the prospective cohort study Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), conducted from September 1, 2005, to December 31, 2016, among females aged 16 to 25 years who had filled out at least 1 and up to 4 assessments of oral contraceptive use, were used. Data analysis was performed from March 1, 2017, to May 31, 2019. Exposure:Oral contraceptive use at 16, 19, 22, and 25 years of age. Main Outcomes and Measures:Depressive symptoms were assessed by the DSM-IV-oriented affective problems scale of the Youth (aged 16 years) and Adult Self-Report (aged 19, 22, and 25 years). Results:Data from a total of 1010 girls (743-903 girls, depending on the wave) were analyzed (mean [SD] age at the first assessment of oral contraceptive use, 16.3 [0.7]; (mean [SD] age at the final assessment of oral contraceptive use, 25.6 [0.6] years). Oral contraceptive users particularly differed from nonusers at age 16 years, with nonusers having a higher mean (SD) socioeconomic status (0.17 [0.78] vs -0.15 [0.71]) and more often being virgins (424 of 533 [79.5%] vs 74 of 303 [24.4%]). Although all users combined (mean [SD] ages, 16.3 [0.7] to 25.6 [0.6] years) did not show higher depressive symptom scores compared with nonusers, adolescent users (mean [SD] age, 16.5 [0.7] years) reported higher depressive symptom scores compared with their nonusing counterparts (mean [SD] age, 16.1 [0.6] years) (mean [SD] score, 0.40 [0.30] vs 0.33 [0.30]), which persisted after adjustment for age, socioeconomic status and ethnicity (? coefficient for interaction with age, -0.021; 95% CI, -0.038 to -0.005; P?=?.0096). Adolescent contraceptive users particularly reported more crying (odds ratio, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.38-2.58; P?<?.001), hypersomnia (odds ratio, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.14-2.48; P?=?.006), and more eating problems (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.13-2.10; P?=?.009) than nonusers. Conclusions and Relevance:Although oral contraceptive use showed no association with depressive symptoms when all age groups were combined, 16-year-old girls reported higher depressive symptom scores when using oral contraceptives. Monitoring depressive symptoms in adolescents who are using oral contraceptives is important, as the use of oral contraceptives may affect their quality of life and put them at risk for nonadherence.
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Project description:Importance:Women are at higher risk of drug-induced torsade de pointes (TdP) than men. Androgens are protective. Influence of oral contraception on drug-induced TdP and QT prolongation is controversial. Objective:To determine if the extent of sotalol-induced corrected QT (QTc) prolongation and specific T-wave morphological changes, which are biomarkers for the risk of drug-induced TdP, differ in patients according to the androgenic activity of the type of oral contraceptive (OCs) they take compared with patients who took no pills. Design, Setting, and Participants:A cohort of 498 healthy, nonmenopausal women received 80 mg of oral sotalol, a drug with known risk of drug-induced TdP, during this study in a clinical investigation center. The participants also took either no oral contraception or received OCs with different types of progestin: levonorgestrel (which has high androgenic potency), desogestrel or gestodene (which has intermediate androgenic potency), or drospirenone (which has antiandrogenic properties). Women were enrolled from February 2008 to February 2012, and data analysis took place from September 2014 to May 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures:Electrocardiographic changes 3 hours after sotalol administration. Results:A total of 137 women received levonorgestrel, 41 received desogestrel, 51 received gestodene, and 62 received drospirenone; another 207 received no OCs. Baseline QTc duration, plasma sotalol levels, and potassium levels did not significantly differ among groups. However, 3 hours after sotalol exposure, QTc prolongation was greater in women taking drospirenone (mean [SD] increase, 31.2 [12.6] milliseconds from baseline) than in women taking no OCs (mean [SD] increase, 24.6 [12.5] milliseconds; P?=?.005) or those taking levonorgestrel (mean [SD] increase, 24.2 [13.7] milliseconds; P?=?.005). The frequency of sotalol-induced T-wave alteration was higher in women taking drospirenone (n?=?13 of 61 [21.0%]) than those taking levonorgestrel (n?=?20 of 137 [14.6%]) or women taking no OCs (n?=?24 of 207 [11.6%]; P?=?.01). Disproportionality analysis using the European pharmacovigilance database showed a higher reporting rate of OC-induced prolonged QT and ventricular arrhythmias in women taking drospirenone than levonorgestrel (drug-induced long QT syndrome: reporting odds ratio [ROR], 6.2 [95% CI, 1.3-30.8]; P?=?.01; ventricular arrhythmia: ROR, 3.3 [95% CI, 1.7-6.3]; P?<?.001). Conclusions and Relevance:Contraceptive pills are associated with variable drug-induced alterations of ventricular repolarization in healthy nonmenopausal women. Drospirenone, an antiandrogenic pill, was associated with increased sotalol-induced QTc prolongation, although absolute QTc prolongation was modest. This finding was supported by the European pharmacovigilance database, which showed a higher reporting rate of suspected OC-induced ventricular arrhythmias on drospirenone compared with levonorgestrel. More data are required on whether antiandrogenic OCs lead to clinically significant adverse events in patients taking QTc-prolonging drugs.
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