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...