A team of researchers from the Copenhagen University Hospital (Denmark) has carried out a study on the reproductive consequences of women who use both the contraceptive pill and the vaginal ring and conclude that both reduce the reproductive capacity of women; fact, which according to the work, is reversible .
According to the study presented in Munich during the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Fertility (ESHRE), the pill has a suppressive effect on two very clear markers of ovarian reserve , considered quite reliable predictors of ovarian aging and ovarian aging. onset of menopause: antimüllerian hormone (AMH) and primary follicle count.
The researchers involved 833 women aged 19 to 46 who attended fertility assessment and clinical counseling at the Danish capital hospital between August 2011 and April 2014. Almost 30% were no longer taking the pill .
Analysis of the results revealed that AMH and primary follicle measurements were 19% and 16% lower in pill users than in non-pill users . In addition, the ovarian volume was also significantly lower –between 29% and 52% -, especially affecting the group of women between 19 and 29.9 years old.
“ We think that the results are reversible taking into account previous studies . These results expose the state of the participants when they were taking the pill and we suspect that if they stopped taking it, these values would go back. The problem is that when you take the pill due to hormonal suppression you cannot ‘feel’ your own body, so you do not know if you are entering menopause or if you are still fertile, “says Kathrine Birch Petersen, co-author of the study.
“I don’t think the pill changes the ovaries permanently. But we need to know more about the recovery phase after stopping the pill . The pill is unlikely to change the parameters for oocyte depletion, but it certainly varies the appearance of the ovaries and AMH secretion, ”says Birch.
