Social Sciences Division, New College of Florida, USA; Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, USA.
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2023 Nov;157:106367. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106367. Epub 2023 Aug 15.
Early evidence suggests that hormonal contraceptive (HC) use alters psychological functioning and competitive behavior. Yet, there is limited data on endocrine models for explaining how HC use affects these outcomes. In this pre-registered and open-data study, we test if HC users and naturally cycling (NC) females in their low (mid-follicular) and high (mid-luteal) progesterone phase differ in competitive persistence and whether progesterone and cortisol reactivity mediate of this effect. HC users (N = 73) in the active hormone-exposure phase and NC participants in the mid-follicular (N = 69) or mid-luteal (N = 72) phase completed two behavioral measures of competitive persistence, holding up a weight for time followed by attempting to solve an unsolvable anagram. Participants also completed measures of handgrip strength and self-reported competitiveness as well as gave saliva samples before and after the tasks for hormone assay. Results showed that NC-follicular group had greater competitive persistence in the weight-holding task compared to both NC-luteal (d = 0.38) and HC use (d = 0.43) groups independent of physical strength and self-reported competitiveness covariates. Although anagram task performance showed similar trends for group differences, analyses for this task were inconclusive. Baseline progesterone did not mediate the effect of cycle phase group on competitive persistence. HC users showed relatively blunted cortisol and progesterone reactivity, and this effect partially mediated the difference in competitive persistence between HC users and the NC-follicular group. In sum, results suggest that HC use could downregulate competitive behavior at least partly by dampening cortisol-progesterone reactivity. These findings offer a new endocrine model for understanding HC use and cycle phase effects on motivational and energetic outcomes required for optimal performance in competitive contexts.
早期证据表明，激素避孕（HC）的使用会改变心理功能和竞争行为。然而，用于解释 HC 使用如何影响这些结果的内分泌模型的数据有限。在这项预先注册和开放数据的研究中，我们测试了 HC 用户和处于低（卵泡中期）和高（黄体中期）孕激素阶段的自然周期（NC）女性在竞争持久性方面是否存在差异，以及孕激素和皮质醇反应是否介导了这种影响。处于活跃激素暴露阶段的 HC 用户（N=73）和 NC 参与者处于卵泡中期（N=69）或黄体中期（N=72）阶段，完成了两项竞争持久性的行为测量，分别是保持举重物的时间和尝试解决无法解决的字谜。参与者还完成了握力和自我报告的竞争力测量，以及在任务前后提供唾液样本进行激素检测。结果表明，NC-卵泡组在举重任务中的竞争持久性大于 NC-黄体组（d=0.38）和 HC 使用组（d=0.43），独立于体力和自我报告的竞争力协变量。虽然字谜任务的表现也显示出组间差异的相似趋势，但对该任务的分析没有定论。基础孕激素并不能介导周期阶段组对竞争持久性的影响。HC 用户表现出相对较弱的皮质醇和孕激素反应，这种效应部分介导了 HC 用户和 NC-卵泡组之间竞争持久性的差异。总之，结果表明，HC 使用可能通过抑制皮质醇-孕激素反应来下调竞争行为，至少在部分程度上是这样。这些发现为理解 HC 使用和周期阶段对竞争环境中最佳表现所需的动机和能量结果的影响提供了一个新的内分泌模型。
