Revisiting the relation between oral contraceptive use and attentional engagement in everyday life: The role of formulation

Oral contraceptives (OCs) are composed of artificial estrogen (ethinyl-estradiol) and/or progesterone (progestin), which can attach to receptors in the brain and potentially influence cognition. One prior study suggested that OC use was associated with increased mind-wandering – implying that OC use was associated with detriments to attention. In contrast, two subsequent well-powered conceptual replications of this initial finding revealed little evidence that OC use was related to increases in inattentiveness (including mind-wandering). However, these later studies collapsed across different OC formulations, which may obscure effects specific to particular formulations. In the present study, we investigated the possibility that OC formulation might differentially relate to attention-related traits. To do this, we collected trait-level reports of the tendency to experience attention related errors, attention lapses, spontaneous and deliberate mind-wandering, boredom, and flow in undergraduate females using OCs, and we collected the brand of OC used from which it was possible to derive the formulation. OC formulations differed in ethinyl-estradiol dose, progestin dose, dosing schedule, hormonal activity (or potency), and the type (or ‘generation’) of progestin used. We found no evidence that different OC formulations were related to differences in attention-related traits, which suggests that OC users can be treated as a homogenous group when examining trait-level attention. Comparisons of OC users (collapsing across formulation) to non-users again revealed no significant differences in trait-level attention.