Relationship satisfaction and outcome in women who meet their partner while using oral contraception

Abstract

Hormonal variation over the menstrual cycle alters women's preferences for phenotypic indicators of men's genetic or parental quality. Hormonal contraceptives suppress these shifts, inducing different mate preference patterns among users and non-users. This raises the possibility that women using oral contraception (OC) choose different partners than they would do otherwise but, to date, we know neither whether these laboratory-measured effects are sufficient to exert real-world consequences, nor what these consequences would be. Here, we test for differences in relationship quality and survival between women who were using or not using OC when they chose the partner who fathered their first child. Women who used OC scored lower on measures of sexual satisfaction and partner attraction, experienced increasing sexual dissatisfaction during the relationship, and were more likely to be the one to initiate an eventual separation if it occurred. However, the same women were more satisfied with their partner's paternal provision, and thus had longer relationships and were less likely to separate. These effects are congruent with evolutionary predictions based on cyclical preference shifts. Our results demonstrate that widespread use of hormonal contraception may contribute to relationship outcome, with implications for human reproductive behaviour, family cohesion and quality of life.

Partner Choice, Relationship Satisfaction, and Oral Contraception

“…Sexual satisfaction scores were included as a covariate in the model predicting nonsexual satisfaction, and vice versa (cf. Roberts et al, 2012). We again found a significant main effect of congruency for women's sexual satisfaction scores, F(1, 335) = 4.02, p = .046, η p 2 = .012; higher scores were reported by women whose previous and current contraceptive use was congruent rather than noncongruent (for full results of the models, see Table S1 in the Supplemental Material available online).…”

“…OC use could therefore potentially influence both a woman's initial partner choice (if she uses OCs during relationship formation) and changes in her subsequent satisfaction with that choice (if she subsequently discontinues or initiates OC use; Roberts et al, 2012). Furthermore, because women's attractiveness to men also varies with menstrual cycle phase and OC use (Cobey, Buunk, Pollet, Klipping, & Roberts, 2013;Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2011;Havlíček, Dvorakova, Bartos, & Flegr, 2006;Kuukasjärvi et al, 2004;Puts et al, 2013), men's relationship satisfaction might also be influenced by changes in their partners' OC use.…”

“…However, one solution is to test the prediction that levels of satisfaction in romantic relationships are associated with congruency in OC use or nonuse across time. If OC use has an influence beyond the laboratory, we would expect more positive assessments of relationship satisfaction in women (and their partners) whose current OC use or nonuse matches their previous OC use (or nonuse) at the time of relationship formation, and particularly for sexual aspects of relationship satisfaction, because these are more directly related to women's assessments of attractiveness than nonsexual satisfaction (Roberts, Cobey, Klapilová, & Havlíček, 2013;Roberts et al, 2012). …”

Hormonal contraceptives suppress oxytocin-induced brain reward responses to the partner’s face

“…Importantly, HC use alters women's pair-bonding behavior, evident in decreased attractiveness ratings of masculine faces (Little et al, 2013), reduced neural response to the expectation of erotic stimuli (Abler et al, 2013), a preference shift towards olfactory cues of genetic similarity (Roberts et al, 2008) and increased sexual jealousy (Geary et al, 2001). Furthermore, women who use HC while choosing partners are more likely to initiate an eventual separation (Roberts et al, 2012) and wives who discontinue HC use tend to be less satisfied with marriage if they perceive their husband's face to be less attractive (Russell et al, 2014).…”

The association between discontinuing hormonal contraceptives and wives’ marital satisfaction depends on husbands’ facial attractiveness

“…Roberts et al (21) reported that women who used HCs when Significance Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) are believed to suppress biological processes associated with women's preferences for cues of partner genetic fitness, cues that may be summarized by men's facial attractiveness. Two longitudinal studies of marriage demonstrate that wives who used HCs at relationship formation became less satisfied when they discontinued HCs if their husband had a relatively less attractive face, but more satisfied if their husband had a relatively more attractive face.…”