Oral contraceptive use in adolescence predicts lasting vulnerability to depression in adulthood

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Abstract
Background: Previous evidence suggests that use of oral contraceptives ( OC s), especially during adolescence, may increase women's vulnerability to depression in the short term. Here, we investigate whether women who had first used OC in adolescence show an increased prevalence of depression in the long term. Methods: We examined 1,236 women in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for whom information on depression and age at first OC use was publicly available. We compared women who reported first use of OC s in adolescence to women who had never used OC s and women who had first used OC s in adulthood on 1‐year prevalence of major depressive disorder ( MDD ) assessed by trained interviewers. Results: Compared with women who had used OC s during adolescence, women who had never used OC s were less likely to meet the criteria for MDD within the past year in adulthood [odds ratio ( OR ) = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.16–0.60], and so were women who only started using OC s in adulthood ( OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.30–0.95). Third factors that have previously been proposed to explain the relationship between OC use and depression risk such as age at sexual debut, and, importantly, current OC use, did not account for the results in propensity score analyses. Conclusions: We show a long‐term association between adolescent OC use and depression risk in adulthood regardless of current OC use. Our findings suggest that adolescence may be a sensitive period during which OC use could increase women's risk for depression, years after first exposure.
Funding Information
  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (DEU 1187856 FLF‐P)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MFE‐158097, PJT‐155935)
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2015‐06753)

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