Photographed By Jessica Nash.Hormonal birth control is a tricky beast. There's a long list of possible negative side effects — some of which are so serious that they drive women to change birth control methods. However, hormonal contraception is relatively low-maintenance and remains many women's go-to way to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Now, a new study, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that changing your birth control methods could have significant effects on how satisfied you feel in your relationship.
Scientists looked at 365 heterosexual couples, surveying them on their satisfaction in both sexual and non-sexual aspects of their relationship over time. They also looked at use of contraceptives over the course of the relationship. They found that changing birth control habits over time had no effect on women's non-sexual satisfaction with their partner.
However, the data did show that women who had met their partner while taking hormonal birth control and had since discontinued using it — and women who had started using hormonal birth control mid-relationship — were less sexually satisfied than women who had been on birth control continuously and those who had never taken it. In other words, switching up hormonal birth control habits contributed to a decline in womens' sexual satisfaction.
Of course, this is not the first study to suggest that birth control can have a demonstrable effect on whom women find attractive. But, the study's authors point out that this is the first time scientists have linked a change in birth control habits to a change in sexual satisfaction within relationships. Considering more than 12 million American women are currently on some form of hormonal birth control — and four out of five woman have been on the pill at some point in their lives — it's worth keeping the satisfaction factor on your radar when thinking about a major birth control change-up. (Science Daily)