Taking hormonal contraceptives (HCs) affects the magnitude of the hormonal stress response and cognition. HCs are usually administered in a monthly cycle with both synthetic-hormone-containing and synthetic-hormone-absent phases. The synthetic hormones contained in HCs affect a wide range of neurophysiological systems, suggesting that effects of the medication might only be observed during the synthetic-hormone-containing phase of the HC cycle. To test this, women were seen twice, once during the hormone-present phase and once during the hormone-absent phase of the HC cycle. In each session, women performed an n-back working memory task to assess pre-stress performance outside of the magnetic resonance imaging scanner, were then exposed to cold pressor stress, and again completed the n-back task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The free cortisol response to stress remained the same across the HC cycle. Women also performed comparably on the n-back task after stress exposure across the two phases. However, despite these similarities, women displayed greater disengagement of default mode network as task demands increased during the hormone-present phase only, a pattern more in line with working memory-related brain activation under non-stressful conditions reported in other studies. The results suggest that the synthetic hormones contained in HCs may mitigate stress-related disruptions of typical brain activation patterns during the hormone-present phase of the HC cycle, despite exhibiting comparable cortisol responses across the HC cycle. Additional research is required to determine the mechanisms contributing to, and the extent of, such mitigating effects.

服用激素避孕药（HCs）会影响激素应激反应和认知的程度。HCs通常以每月一次的周期施用，既包含合成激素阶段，也包含缺乏合成激素阶段。HC中所含的合成激素会影响广泛的神经生理系统，这表明药物的作用可能仅在HC周期的含合成激素阶段才能观察到。为了测试这一点，妇女被看过两次，一次是在HC周期的激素存在阶段，一次是在激素缺乏阶段。在每个疗程中，妇女执行n背工作记忆任务以评估磁共振成像扫描仪外部的预应力表现，然后暴露于冷压应力下，并再次在功能磁共振成像过程中完成n背任务。在整个HC周期中，游离皮质醇对压力的反应保持不变。在经历了两个阶段的压力暴露之后，女性在n背任务上的表现也相当。然而，尽管有这些相似之处，但由于仅在激素存在阶段任务需求增加，女性仍表现出更大的默认模式网络脱离性，这种模式更符合其他研究报告的在非压力条件下与工作记忆相关的大脑激活。结果表明，尽管在整个HC循环中表现出可比的皮质醇反应，但是HC中所含的合成激素可能会减轻HC循环的激素存在阶段中典型的大脑激活模式与压力相关的破坏。需要进一步的研究来确定促成这种缓解作用的机制及其程度。