Emotion regulation strategies differentially impact memory in hormonal contraceptive users

Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) are widely used, yet their effects on emotional and cognitive processes remain poorly understood. This study examined how HC use may influence emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, and emotional memory. Female participants (N = 179), either using HCs (N = 87) or naturally cycling (NC; N = 92), were randomly assigned to one of three groups: no emotion regulation (control), distancing and immersion, or reinterpretation and immersion. The emotion regulation groups completed emotion regulation training in which they viewed emotional images while applying different emotion regulation strategies, followed by a surprise memory test. Overall, HC users showed greater emotional reactivity to emotional images compared to NC participants. Both HC and NC groups successfully applied emotion regulation strategies as measured by changes in emotional affect; however, distancing led to a greater reduction in negative emotions compared to reinterpretation, particularly among HC users. Both HC and NC groups showed better memory for positive images after applying immersion. For negative images, HC users showed reduced memory performance when applying either distancing or reinterpretation, an effect not observed in NC participants. These findings suggest that HC use may influence specific aspects of emotional processing and memory, highlighting the need for more nuanced research on the cognitive and emotional effects of hormonal contraceptives.