A high-powered replication study finds no effect of starting or stopping hormonal contraceptive use on relationship quality

A number of recent studies have implicated that incongruent use of hormonal contraceptives (HCs) negatively affects various aspects of women’s romantic relationships. It has been suggested that women with incongruent HC use (a discrepancy in HC use status between when they first met their current partner and the time of study participation) report less sexual satisfaction and higher jealousy scores compared to women with congruent HC use. A similar effect has also been hypothesized for general relationship satisfaction, and recent findings suggest that the association between HC incongruency and general relationship satisfaction is moderated by women’s perceived facial attractiveness of male partners. Using a large convenience sample (N = 948) of Finnish women, we attempted to replicate previously reported findings but found no support for the HC congruency hypothesis, despite excellent statistical power (≥98.7%) to detect previously reported effect sizes. Instead, after dividing our sample into four groups based on HC congruency/incongruency, we found that the largest differences in jealousy, sexual satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction scores tended to be found between women who were consistent HC users and consistent non-users (i.e., between women with different kinds of congruent HC use). We also detected a significant main effect of current HC use on jealousy. We conclude that, as the effect size of the HC incongruency effect reported in previous studies was small, unequal distributions of current HC users within congruent and incongruent HC user groups may give rise to spurious HC incongruency effects in studies using small samples

The Congruency Hypothesis Revisited: A Reassessment of the Association between Hormonal Contraception, Sexual Satisfaction, and Relationship Satisfaction

Recent research has found empirical support for the hormonal contraceptive (HC) congruency hypothesis, which predicts that a change in women’s HC consumption will result in lower intra-pair sexual satisfaction due to altering the preferences for partner’s traits, although these studies have left room for speculation of the actual effect of HC congruency. To reassess the congruency hypothesis, a large sample of 948 Finnish women was gathered (Mage = 23.95 years, SD = 4.16) who completed an online survey, including items about their current and previous HC use, general relationship satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction. The present study attempted to replicate results from two recent studies that have found support for the congruency hypothesis. A direct replication of one study was performed, and in addition data regarding sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction was collected using measures that have been previously validated (Perceived Relationship Quality Components and Female Sexual Function Index). The present study had 98.7% power to detect an effect for the association between sexual satisfaction and HC congruency of the same size as reported in previous studies. However, no support was found for the congruency hypothesis in the present study despite excellent statistical power, and regardless of whether the same measures as used in previous studies of HC congruency or validated measures of sexual satisfaction and general relationship satisfaction were used. Instead, the present study found that the largest mean differences in terms of sexual satisfaction were between the two different congruent HC user groups (i.e., between women who had used HCs both when they first met their partner and at the time of study participation, and women who had not used HCs at either time point), contradicting the congruency hypothesis. These results cast serious doubt on the congruency hypothesis, but the findings suggest a pharmacological main effect of HC use on relationship-related outcomes.siirretty Doriast