The Impact of Hormonal Contraceptives on Women’s Sexual and Mating Psychology

Abstract

Women’s sex hormones play an important role in shaping women’s mating psychology and behavior. These hormones are disrupted by the use of hormonal contraceptives (HCs), which suppress the release of women’s own dynamically changing ovarian hormones and supplant them with a consistent dose of synthetics. Although a majority of reproductive-aged women have used HCs to manage fertility at some point in their lives, little is known about the impacts of the artificial hormones in HCs on women’s mating psychology and behavior. In the current chapter, we review what is known and not known about the relationship between HC use and women’s mating and sexual psychology. The chapter closes by addressing important limitations of the existing research and delineating fruitful areas for future study.