Researcher scans herself 75 times to study effects of birth control on brain health
A medical researcher has completed dozens of MRI scans on herself to gain insight into how the use of oral contraceptives affects the physiological processes of the brain.
Carina Heller, a postdoctoral research fellow with University of Minnesota Twin Cities, recently detailed her research and the drivers that led her to pursuing the year-long analysis on herself, including excerpts taken from her own personal experiences coming off oral contraceptives after taking them consistently for over a decade. Heller says that, despite there currently being tens of millions of women who choose to take oral contraceptives, the research into the neurological effects of this form of birth control have been understudied, and that most studies available on the subject are small in size and narrow in scope.
“Motivated by my personal experiences and this knowledge gap, in 2022 I launched a one-person study using myself as the participant,” Heller writes in an editorial for The Transmitter. “By examining my brain in such depth across different hormonal states, I aimed to uncover within-person patterns of change that might offer new insights into how contraceptives influence physical and mental health.”
Heller, who has a history of researching brain connectivity and function related to different mental health conditions, says she volunteered to take on the research herself because she knew the process would be intense. Over the course of a year, she underwent a total of 75 structural, functional and diffusion MRI scans of her brain alongside numerous blood draws both while she was and was not on contraceptives. She hopes her research will provide greater insight into how the use of oral birth control impacts physical and mental health and arm women with more detailed information they can use to make informed decisions regarding their health.
Although Heller has not yet analyzed all her scans, for the sake of transparency and progress she intends to make that data openly available once it is put together.
“This is particularly important in women’s health, an area that has historically been underfunded and under-researched. Transparent data-sharing not only supports scientific accountability, it empowers women with evidence-based information so they can make informed decisions about their health,” she says.
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.