A laboratory study was undertaken with volunteer females (aged 20-25) to determine the effect of OCs (oral contraceptives) on hematologic and metabolic variables during exercise. 5 of the women studied were naturally cycling and 7 were taking OCs. The women worked at 2 workloads on a bicycle ergometer at 50% and 90% of their maximal aerobic capacity during 3 different phases of their menstrua...

INTRODUCTION Oral contraceptives, mainly combined monophasic pills, are widely used by young women who expect their physicians to prescribe them safe drugs which will not harm their health and which will simplify their life. Numerous epidemiologic studies have been performed to determine the relation between oral contraceptive use and the development of neoplasms. BREAST CANCER An increased i...

BACKGROUND Oral contraceptives were introduced almost 50 years ago, and over 100 million women currently use them. Oral contraceptives can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, but the eventual public-health effects of this reduction will depend on how long the protection lasts after use ceases. We aimed to assess these effects. METHODS Individual data for 23,257 women with ovarian cancer (cases...

BACKGROUND Oral contraceptive use has been associated with an increase in the risk of breast cancer in young women. We examined whether this association is seen in women at high risk of breast cancer because they carry a mutation in one of two breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. METHODS We performed a matched case-control study on 1311 pairs of women with known deleterious BR...

We present a case with the rare combination of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications of oral contraceptives. A healthy 40-year-old woman suffered from cardiac arrest due to massive pulmonary embolism, caused by oral contraceptives and immobilization during a flight. After successful resuscitation, obstructive shock necessitated thrombolysis and thereafter heparin. Anticoagulation was complic...

OBJECTIVES The majority of post-thrombotic women are barred from using oral contraceptives. We evaluated this policy for its clinical relevance. DESIGN A meta-analysis of controlled studies between 1960 and 1993. SETTING A Medline computer search, from 1966 to 1993, in multiple languages, with the following index terms: thrombosis, thrombopheblitis, vein, venous, pulmonary embolism, contrac...

Epidemiological studies indicate that use of third generation oral contraceptives increases the risk of venous thromboembolism more than does use of second generation oral contraceptives. Critics have suggested that this finding may be confounded by indication, since third generation pills were considered to be safer and were therefore perhaps prescribed more often to women at high risk. If con...

In a survey of 461 women routinely attending family planning clinics, those taking oral contraceptives had significantly higher mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures than those using non-hormonal contraception. There appeared to be a dose-response relation of blood pressure to the progestogen component of 2 oral contraceptives with an identical 30 micrograms ethinylestradiol component. ...

Patients with hyperandrogenic syndromes and diseases exacerbated by pregnancy and those taking common dermatologic drugs associated with risk to the fetus require prescription of contraceptives by the dermatologist. In healthy, nonsmoking women, oral contraception does not increase the risk of cerebral or cardiac vascular disease and is associated with major benefits besides avoiding pregnancy....

With the exception of rifampin-like drugs, there is a lack of scientific evidence supporting the ability of commonly prescribed antibiotics, including all those routinely employed in outpatient dentistry, to either reduce blood levels and/or the effectiveness of oral contraceptives. To date, all clinical trials studying the effects of concomitant antibiotic therapy (with the exception of rifamp...