Do oral contraceptives affect young women's memory? Dopamine-dependent working memory is influenced by COMT genotype, but not time of pill ingestion.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCs), and the well-documented influence of estrogens, notably 17β-estradiol (E2), on cognition, research relating OCs to working memory is limited and mixed. Two factors may contribute to these mixed findings: 1) pharmacokinetics of oral contraceptives, which drive fluctuations in synthetic hormone levels; and 2) genetic polymorphisms related to dopamine degradation and working memory, which interact with E2. This research investigated whether the pharmacokinetics of oral contraceptives, in concert with the single nucleotide polymorphism (Val158Met; rs4680) of the catechol-o-methyltransferase gene (COMT), influence working memory performance.

Methods

University-age women taking and not taking OCs were tested for w

SUBMITTER: Gravelsins L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8192013 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature