X

Misinformed Consent: Hormonal Contraception Part 2

June 22, 2026 10:28 pm

The focus of Part 1 was how misinformation or incomplete education in informed consent can have life-altering consequences. The issues of when life begins, how hormonal contraception influences the beginning of life, and the necessity of protecting the dignity of the human person were discussed. Part II focuses on hormonal contraception and its potential risks to enable women to make fully informed decisions.

Studies are revealing that the interaction with the immune system, autoimmunity, and proinflammatory states are factors for many chronic diseases.

In 2023, UCLA published an article showing that hormonal contraception increased cortisol and proinflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-6 (1). This same article also showed that women on hormonal contraception rated their mood as lower and had higher subjective stress levels in response to a social stressor (1).

In 2017, a study published in the European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care found that women with pre-existing depression, eating disorders or anxiety had worsened symptoms on combined oral contraceptives (2). In 2022, the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University published a study on increased anxiety, depression, and stress scores of women on hormonal contraception (3). This same article found increases in both cortisol and CRP in women taking hormonal contraception (3). In 2017, an article on how the hypothalamic pituitary axis is modified such that there is an increase in cortisol production as well as a decrease in hippocampal size was observed in women taking hormonal contraception (4). This is important to understand as the function of a hippocampus is broad, with roles in memory formation and consolidation, spatial navigation, and is an integral part of the limbic system, the source of our emotional behaviors (5).

For over thirty years, there has been an understanding that hormonal contraception increases rates of breast cancer, a risk which reduces after cessation of taking hormonal contraception (6). In 2017, a prospective study found the increased risk of breast cancer to be up to 60%, depending upon the type of hormonal contraception used (7). In 2007, The Lancet published review data on tens of thousands of women, finding that rates of cervical cancer were increased in women taking hormonal contraception (8).

The most common adverse effects that are more commonly known about oral contraceptives are decreased libido, nausea, increased vaginal discharge, headaches, and breast tenderness (9). Other commonly known adverse effects are the increased risk of blood clots (10) stroke (11), and decreased bone mineral density (9).

What medications we are taking, how they are working within our biology, the risks, benefits and alternatives to treatment are all imperative to informed consent. The knowledge that hormonal contraception is acting as an abortifacient, as outlined in part 1, and that the risks to utilizing hormonal contraception reach far past the years of use themselves are key takeaways, but is this information reaching women for informed consent, especially when considering the nation’s leading provider and advocate for hormonal contraception is Planned Parenthood (12)?

May our decisions as Catholic Healthcare professionals be shaped by our growing knowledge of what is good, true and beautiful.

References

  1. Mengelkoch, S., Gassen, J., Slavich, G. M., & Hill, S. E. (2024). Hormonal contraceptive use is associated with differences in women’s inflammatory and psychological reactivity to an acute social stressor. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 115, 747–757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.10.033 
  2. Bengtsdotter, H., Lundin, C., Gemzell Danielsson, K., Bixo, M., Baumgart, J., Marions, L., … Sundström Poromaa, I. (2018). Ongoing or previous mental disorders predispose to adverse mood reporting during combined oral contraceptive use. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, 23(1), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13625187.2017.1422239
  3. Masama, C., Jarkas, D. A., Thaw, E., Daneshmend, A. Z. B., Franklyn, S. I., Beaurepaire, C., & McQuaid, R. J. (2022). Hormone contraceptive use in young women: Altered mood states, neuroendocrine and inflammatory biomarkers. Hormones and Behavior, 144, 105229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105229 
  4. Hertel, J., König, J., Homuth, G. et al. Evidence for Stress-like Alterations in the HPA-Axis in Women Taking Oral Contraceptives. Sci Rep 7, 14111 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13927-7
  5. Anand KS, Dhikav V. Hippocampus in health and disease: An overview. Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2012 Oct;15(4):239-46. doi: 10.4103/0972-2327.104323. PMID: 23349586; PMCID: PMC3548359, Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology.
  6. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and hormonal contraceptives: Collaborative reanalysis of individual data on 53,297 women with breast cancer and 100,239 women without breast cancer from 54 epidemiological studies. Lancet 1996; 347(9017):1713–1727, Breast cancer and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative reanalysis of individual data on 53 297 women with breast cancer and 100 239 women without breast cancer from 54 epidemiological studies – The Lancet.
  7. Mørch LS, Skovlund CW, Hannaford PC, et al. Contemporary hormonal contraception and the risk of breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 2017; 377(23):2228–2239, Contemporary Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of Breast Cancer | New England Journal of Medicine.
  8. International Collaboration of Epidemiological Studies of Cervical Cancer; Appleby P, Beral V, Berrington de González A, Colin D, Franceschi S, Goodhill A, Green J, Peto J, Plummer M, Sweetland S. Cervical cancer and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative reanalysis of individual data for 16,573 women with cervical cancer and 35,509 women without cervical cancer from 24 epidemiological studies. Lancet. 2007 Nov 10;370(9599):1609-21. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61684-5. PMID: 17993361, Cervical cancer and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative reanalysis of individual data for 16 573 women with cervical cancer and 35 509 women without cervical cancer from 24 epidemiological studies – ScienceDirect.
  9. Cooper, Danielle B., Preeti Patel, and Hany Mahdy. Oral Contraceptive Pills. StatPearls Publishing, 29 Feb. 2024, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430882/.
  10. Nylander MC, Clausen HV. [Serious adverse effect of combined oral contraceptive pills among teenagers]. Ugeskr Laeger. 2014 Jun 23;176(26):V05130336, [Serious adverse effect of combined oral contraceptive pills among teenagers] – PubMed.
  11. Roach RE, Helmerhorst FM, Lijfering WM, Stijnen T, Algra A, Dekkers OM. Combined oral contraceptives: the risk of myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Aug 27;2015(8):CD011054, Combined oral contraceptives: the risk of myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke – Roach, RE – 2015 | Cochrane Library.
  12. Who We Are | Planned Parenthood

The post Misinformed Consent: Hormonal Contraception Part 2 appeared first on Catholic Medical Association.

Categorised in: