How taking the Pill can bring out a woman's jealous and possessive side



Women can be distrustful of their men at the best of times.

But if you reckon you’re under suspicion without good grounds, you might find the answer to your partner’s qualms in the medicine cabinet.

A study claims sex hormones in the contraceptive Pill bring out the green-eyed monster, making a woman more possessive and more likely to fret about her husband or boyfriend’s fidelity.

Green-eyed monster: Oestrogen in the contraceptive Pill brings out a woman's jealous side

Those taking brands with the highest levels of oestrogen may even find their hormone-driven suspicions place their relationship in jeopardy, researchers warned.

The finding is one in a long line of ‘emotional’ side-effects attributed to the Pill, which is taken by some 3.5million British women – a quarter of all 16 to 49-year-olds.



The drug is also credited with making women broody, changing their taste in men and even boosting intelligence.

Working with Dutch psychologists, Stirling University’s Dr Craig Roberts asked 275 women a series of questions designed to gauge how much they trusted their partner.

Topics covered included how they feel when their other half flirts with another woman, whether they were worried that he would leave them for another woman and how possessive they were.

The women, who were aged between 17 and 35 had all been taking various versions of the combined Pill, containing synthetic forms of oestrogen and progesterone, for at least three months.

Chose carefully: Certain brands of Pill are higher oestrogen than others

Comparing the brands used with the women’s answers revealed a clear link between the drug and envy.

And the higher the dose of oestrogen in the contraceptive, the more likely a woman was to be jealous.

Progesterone, however, was not implicated in jealousy, suggesting that progesterone-only versions of the Pill play less havoc with women’s emotions.

With previous research suggesting that simply going on the Pill heightens jealousy, the researchers said that women should be aware of the phenomenon.



Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the researchers added that brands with the highest doses of oestrogen – listed as ethinylestradiol on packets – may find it harder to form and maintain relationships.

Dr Roberts said: ‘It seems that women, and perhaps pharmaceutical providers, are not fully aware of the range of potential psychological side-effects associated with pill use and more specifically brand choice.’

Man or boy: The chemical imbalance caused by the Pill can make you chose more boyish men, like Zac Efron, over more rugged men, such as Sean Connery



In a previous study, Dr Roberts found that the Pill may also alter a sense of smell.



With research suggesting we use our noses to help sniff out a suitable partner, he fears the Pill could lead women to hook up with the wrong sorts.

Studies have also concluded that the Pill makes women broody and that its hormones suppress interest in masculine men - making boyish males seem more attractive.

If the theory is right, it could at least partly explain the shifting in tastes from macho 1950s and 1960s stars such as Kirk Douglas and Sean Connery to the more androgenous leading men of today, such as Johnny Depp and Zac Efron.

Most recently, a study claimed that taking the Pill makes certain areas of women’s brains bigger, including the ‘conversation hub’ and grey matter essential for memory and social skills.

Scientists took high-resolution images of the brains of 14 men and of 28 women, half of whom were on the Pill.



Several areas of the brains of women taking the Pill were larger than the brains of those not taking the contraceptive, the journal Brain Research reported.