Oral contraceptives result in a mild elevation of blood pressure in most women and overt hypertension in about 5%. Both estrogen and progestogen are responsible for the blood pressure effect, but the mechanism is as yet unknown. The risk of cardiovascular complications is found primarily in women over 35 years of age and in those who smoke. Preparations with an estrogen content of 30 g and a pr...

Many of this Journal’s older readers will be familiar with the Oxford-Family Planning Association (Oxford-FPA) contraceptive study and will, indeed, have made important contributions to data collection. Accordingly, I was delighted that the Journal Editor had chosen the most recent publication from the study1 as the subject for a Journal Review. I am also grateful to Dr Mills for taking so much...

In the late 1950's the pioneering works of dedicated scientists and researchers led to the first field trials of the hormonal steroids as oral contraceptives. Continuing excellent research in many countries have established the Pill as an extremely reliable, reversible and acceptable means of birth control. Some 200 million women in the world today have relied on/or are using the Pill for famil...

Studies about the association between oral contraceptives use and liver cancer risk have generated controversial results. Therefore, a meta-analysis of cohort and case-control studies was performed to quantitatively summarize the existing evidence.Eligible studies were identified by a computer search of PubMed and Embase databases and handed-search of reference lists, without any limitations. S...

BACKGROUND The role of inherited prothrombotic conditions, including factor V Leiden (FV G1691A), prothrombin G20210A, and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T genotype, in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke is not well established. The effects of these factors may be potentiated by the use of oral contraceptives, analogous to observations in venous thrombosis. METHODS Patie...

Women take oral contraceptives for contraception but also for menstrual dysfunction treatment. This raises the question of whether or not women with menstrual dysfunction are underrepresented in analyses of menstrual function because oral contraceptive users are excluded. To explore this, the authors examined the history of oral contraceptive use among 1322 Black women and White women, aged 35-...