No abstract

Relatively little is known about the effects of endogenous and exogenous steroid hormones on ecologically relevant behavioral and cognitive phenotypes in women, such as emotion recognition, despite the widespread use of steroid hormone-altering hormonal contraceptives (HCs). Though some previous studies have examined the effect of HC use, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone on emotion recognition in women, they have been limited by cross-sectional designs, small sample sizes (total n < 100), and compromised statistical power to detect significant effects. Using data from two test sessions in a large sample of naturally cycling women (NC; n = 192) and women on HCs (n = 203), we found no group differences in emotion recognition; further, the lack of group differences in emotion recognition were not modulated by item difficulty or emotional valence. Among NC women who provided saliva samples across two sessions that were assayed for estradiol and progesterone concentrations, we found no compelling evidence across models that between-subject differences and within-subject fluctuations in these ovarian hormones predicted emotion recognition accuracy, with the exception that between-subjects estradiol predicted emotion recognition for emotions of neutral valence (p = 0.042). Among HC women who provided saliva samples across two sessions that were assayed for testosterone, we found no compelling evidence that between-subjects differences and within-subject fluctuations in testosterone predicted emotion recognition accuracy. Overall, our analyses provide little support for the idea that circulating endogenous or exogenous ovarian hormones influence emotion recognition in women.

BACKGROUND: Anti-Mü llerian hormone has become the clinical biomarker-based standard to assess ovarian reserve. As anti-Mü llerian hormone testing becomes more common, more individuals are seeking to interpret the values obtained while using contraceptives. To appropriately counsel women, a better understanding of anti-Mü llerian hormone levels in women using different contraceptives is needed. OBJECTIVE: To study the association between different forms of contraceptives and anti-Mü llerian levels in women of reproductive age. STUDY DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study including 27,125 USbased women aged 20 to 46 years, accessing reproductive hormone results through Modern Fertility and who provided informed consent to participate in the research. Anti-Mü llerian hormone levels were collected through dried blood spot card (95.9%) or venipuncture (4.1%), and previous work has shown high correlation between hormone levels collected by these 2 methods. Multiple linear regressions were run to compare anti-Mü llerian hormone levels in women using contraceptives with women not on any contraceptive, controlling for age, age of menarche, body mass index, smoking, sample collection method, cycle day, and self-reported polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis. We also analyzed whether duration of contraceptive use predicted anti-Mü llerian hormone levels in users of the hormonal intrauterine device and combined oral contraceptive pill, given the size of these contraceptive groups. RESULTS: Mean anti-Mü llerian hormone levels were statistically significantly lower in women using the combined oral contraceptive pill (23.

No abstract

No abstract