Effect of Oral Contraceptives on Depressive Mood Changes and on Endometrial Monoamine Oxidase and Phosphatases

Significant variations in the incidence of depression and loss of libido were found with the various types of oral contraceptives. The highest incidence occurred with strongly progestogenic compounds (especially with those containing a small amount of oestrogen) which have high monoamine oxidase activity for most of the cycle. The lowest incidence was found with the strongly oestrogenic sequential regimens which have weak monoamine oxidase activity for most of the cycle.     

Chorea and the Oral Contraceptives

The case histories are reported of six women who developed chorea while taking oral contraceptive drugs. The chorea that results from taking compounds containing oestrogen and progestogen has many features in common with chorea gravidarum, and the pathogenesis is probably similar. In some of the patients, however, the sudden onset of symptoms suggests a vascular aetiology.     

Breast-milk Jaundice and Oral Contraceptives

Among breast-fed infants in the normal lying-in wards of a maternity hospital a significantly higher incidence of “idiopathic” jaundice was found in infants of mothers who had been receiving the contraceptive pill before the present pregnancy than in the infants whose mothers never had the pill. The pill became widely used in society at about the same time as breast-milk jaundice was first reported.