Women who use the pill to prevent pregnancy may experience memory disturbances, according to a study by the University of California at Irvine (USA). Specifically, this drug enhances emotional memories, but reduces the memory's ability to retain details . "There are only a handful of studies that examine the cognitive effects of the pill, yet more than 100 million women around the world take it," explain Larry Cahill and Shawn Nielsen.
The researchers clarify that the study, published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory , reveals that contraceptives do not damage memory, but rather modify the type of information that the brain stores, due to the fact that they reduce the levels of hormones involved in reproduction female like estrogen and progesterone. The left brain is specialized in remembering emotional events, while the right is concerned with retaining information about details such as colors, dates, names, objects, etc.
