Anxiety and inhibitory control in women cycling naturally and women taking oral contraceptives

Elevated levels of anxiety are related to longer response times on tasks assessing inhibition, the ability to restrain automatic responses. The literature shows inconsistent results regarding the link between the menstrual cycle, oral contraceptives (OC), anxiety, and inhibition. The present project aimed to compare anxiety levels and inhibitory control towards emotional words, including those eliciting anxiety, in naturally cycling (NC) women and women taking OC containing androgenic progestins or OC containing anti-androgenic progestins. We present two studies: a cross-sectional study with 240 women and a daily diary study with 89 women. Inhibitory control was measured with an Emotional Stroop task.