Study Finds Disturbing Link Between Hormonal Birth Control and Depression — Are You at Risk?

We always wonder what will happen to our bodies after we stop taking birth control, but what about what happens to our bodies while we're taking the pill? A large new study has found that hormonal methods of birth control are associated with a greater risk of depression. The results from a study at the University of Copenhagen have recently been unveiled, and after monitoring over one million Danish women for 13 years, they found a 40 percent increased risk of depression in women who had been on hormonal birth control after just six months.

They started in 2000, studied women ages 15 to 34, and found that some types of contraception had even higher risks for depression than others. The risk of depression is reportedly doubled for women on progestin-only methods (injection and "the mini-pill") and tripled for women with the Mirena IUD. Of course, the results varied for women at different ages, but the risk for depression was generally higher for younger girls. "It is important that we tell women that there is this possibility. And there are effective nonhormonal methods of birth control," Dr. Oejvind Lidegaard, senior author of the study, told The New York Times. Read the entire study here, and then, find out what you need to know if you're thinking about going off the pill.