If anybody needed more proof that women can’t win when it comes to expressing their sexuality, a Danish study involving more than 1 million women found an increased risk of depression tied to taking hormonal birth control. Oh, yay.
The participating women were between the ages of 15 and 34, tracked over the course of 13 years, ending in 2013. According to the New York Times, the researchers found that those taking hormonal birth control were 40 percent more likely to develop depression compared to those who weren’t taking it.
Women who took progestin-only pills—also called mini-pills, rather than pills that contain both progestin and estrogen—more than doubled their risk of developing depression. Those who used levonorgestrel IUDs such as Mirena nearly tripled their risk.
The senior author of the study, Dr. Oejvind Lidegaard of the University of Copenhagen, told the Times that, even though most women who use hormonal birth controls won’t get depressed, a “40 percent increase is not trivial.” You don’t say.
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
![There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-L-Sundance-01.jpg?w=579 "There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]")
