BEHAVIORAL AND NEUROBIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND A HISTORY OF TRIPHASIC ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE EXPOSURE
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Oral contraceptive steroids are a widely used and efficacious form of birth control. However, after 4 decades of experience with oral contraceptives, and extensive refinement to their formulation, concern still remains about their safety. Contraceptive formulations differ in their estrogen and progestin components and whether they are delivered in a triphasic or monophasic fashion over the course of the menstrual cycle. The most common estrogen in currently prescribed formulations is ethinyl
Animals
Seventy-nine adult female cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were obtained directly from Indonesia (Institut Pertanian Bogor, Bogor, Indonesia). The animals were estimated to be 6–12 years of age based on dentition, and ranged from 2.2 to 5.0 kg in body weight. During the course of the study four animals died from causes unrelated to the experiment (a diarrheal disease), resulting in a final sample size of 75. The monkeys lived in stable social groups of four to six females throughout the
Social Behavior
Social behavior can be a sensitive bioassay for effects on the central nervous system. The means (±SEM) of behaviors that were affected by social status, OC, or ERT are shown in Table I.
Social Status and Behavior (Table I(A))
In group-living female cynomolgus monkeys, social behavior is different in dominant and socially subordinate animals. Social status differences in behavior are generally quite robust and difficult to alter. The following behaviors were significantly different between subordinates and dominants at the p<.05 level
DISCUSSION
Social status, a history of OC exposure, and ERT all had independent or interactive effects on social behavior, stress responsive systems, and monoaminergic systems. Prior OC exposure increased the rate at which females received aggression involving physical contact. This is typically a rare and risky type of behavior because the health consequences can be severe. Time spent scanning fearfully was also reduced. Usually this behavior is used to track and avoid individuals that may exhibit
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Jay Kaplan, Ph.D. for contributing the use of his heart rate telemetry system for this study, and Ms. Kathryn Kelley and Mr. W. Randall Johnson for their technical expertise in data collection. All hormone assays were done in the laboratory of Mark Wilson, Ph.D., Yerkes Regional Primate Center, Atlanta, GA.
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