Anxiety and inhibitory control in women cycling naturally and women taking oral contraceptives

2025/07/06 by Melanie Kowalczyk, Monika Kornacka, Izabela Krejtz · 1 voice
Psychology · #Eating Disorders and Behaviors #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/20445911.2025.2525254

openalex publication_date 2025/07/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

Elevated levels of anxiety are related to longer response times on tasks assessing inhibition, the ability to restrain automatic responses. The literature shows inconsistent results regarding the link between oral contraceptives (OC), anxiety, and inhibition. The present project aimed to compare anxiety levels and inhibitory control towards emotional words, including those eliciting anxiety, in naturally cycling (NC) women and women taking OC containing androgenic progestins or OC containing anti-androgenic progestins. We present two studies: a cross-sectional study with 240 women and a daily diary study with 89 women. There was no difference in anxiety levels between OC users and NC women in both studies. The daily diary study showed a significant difference between groups with anti-androgenic OC users always having the longest response times. Future studies could focus on the link between the different components of OC and inhibitory control as it can be linked to anxiety symptoms in women.

Citations

• A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
• La iglesia de San Pedro el Viejo de Madrid. Etapas constructivas, intervenciones y estado actual
• Sex differences in anxiety and depression clinical perspectives
• Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.
• Combined oral contraceptive use is associated with both improvement and worsening of mood in the different phases of the treatment cycle—A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial
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Discussions

• New Publication Alert! 📣 How do #oralcontraceptives (OCs) impact #wellbeing? 🧠 Research led by Cluster member Melanie Kowalczyk from Uniwersytet SWPS examined #anxiety and inhibitory control in #or [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]

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