The relationship between hormonal contraceptives, level of anxiety and emotional awareness: pilot project.

An important part of the side effects of combined oral contraceptives (COC) usage is its psychological impact, which includes mood changes, anxiousness and depression. The psychological impacts are expected to be caused by physiological fluctuations of sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle; this cycling is, however, suppressed in COC users. In our study, we assessed the differences in emotional awareness and anxiousness between women long term users of anti-androgenic COC (AA) and women with no COC use in their medical history (C).