Birth Control Pills Reduce the Body’s Ability to Regulate Stress, New Study Finds

New research may offer insight into complex mental and physical ailments linked to oral contraceptives

Researchers found those taking birth control pills had a decreased ability to adjust to stress.SeventyFour/Shutterstock

Even though women have been using the birth control pill for the better part of the past seven decades, researchers are still discovering the complex ways it affects the body and mind—which go far beyond reproduction.

The study has wide-reaching implications, as millions of women worldwide use the birth control pill, many of them beginning at puberty.