193 COPYRIGHT 2016 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 21, NO. 3/ISSN 2164-8204) FALL 2016 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH *Faculty mentor ABSTRACT. Hormone fluctuations due to menstruation may cause changes in mood. Oral contraceptives (OCs) stabilize hormone levels. Although inconsistent, some research has found OCs to have a positive impact on women’s mood and affect. Stable mood may in turn lead to positive overflow effects in a woman’s life as seen through increased romantic relationship satisfaction. The current study examined the association between OC use and relationship satisfaction. Data from Waves 3 and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data set (N = 4,311 women) were used. Women ranged in age from 18 to 28 (M = 22.26, SD = 1.79) at Wave 3 and from 25 to 34 (M = 29.02, SD = 1.73) at Wave 4. Results indicated that women who used OCs at Wave 3 were more satisfied with their relationships at Wave 4 than women who did not use OCs, R 2 = .049, F(5, 4048) = 41.65, p < .001; β = .032, p = .041. These results suggest that hormones in OCs may have diffuse downstream effects in the lives of women who take them, including in their romantic relationship satisfaction. This highlights the importance of recognizing the primary and secondary implications of OC use and the need for both women and clinicians to understand the potential benefits of OCs in making informed treatment decisions. Oral Contraceptive Use Associated With Increased Romantic Relationship Satisfaction Tenille C. Taggart, Julia F. Hammett, and Emilio C. Ulloa * San Diego State University M ost (82%) sexually experienced women have used oral contraceptives (OCs) at some point in their lives (Daniels, Mosher, & Jones, 2013). In addition to preventing pregnancy, many women take OCs for other noncontraceptive benefits such as mitigating symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), treating acne, and normalizing irregular cycles (Dawood, 2006; Jones, 2011). Reproductive hormones have been linked to mood alterations (Newman & Mello, 2009), and researchers have begun to further explore the association between hormones and mental health and well-being. Because OCs have the potential to impact mood, they may also potentially affect behavior and interpersonal relationships. PMS is a common ailment that many women of reproductive age experience. It includes both physi- ological and psychological symptoms. Sometimes these symptoms are so severe that they significantly impair a woman’s normal functioning, defined as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A common element between PMS and PMDD is that they are both menstrual-related disorders with a component of mood-related and/or psychologi- cal symptoms (e.g., depression, irritability, anxiety, confusion, social withdrawal, mood swings, feeling suddenly sad or tearful, increased sensitivity to rejection, and increased interpersonal conflicts; American College of Obstetricians and Gyne- cologists, 2000; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), suggesting that women’s hormones have an effect on mood and behavior. Sensitivity to the fluctuating hormones (i.e., estradiol, progesterone) of the menstrual cycle is widely believed to be the cause, at least in part, of PMS and PMDD symptoms (Halbreich, Boren- stein, Pearlstein, & Kahn, 2003; Joffe et al., 2007; Schmidt, Nieman, Danaceau, Adams, & Rubinow, 1998). Estrogen is known as a mood enhancer. Thus, it is not surprising that PMDD’s affective symptoms occur during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle, which is a phase known for its variability in estrogen levels (Douma, Husband,