These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Oral contraceptives.
    Author: Maclennan AH.
    Journal: Curr Ther (Seaforth); 1987 Dec; 28(12):113-22. PubMed ID: 12317413.
    Abstract:
    Over 60 million women use highly efficient and safe modern combined oral contraceptives (OCs) every day. A women who takes the oral contraceptive for 5 years before the age of 30 will actually live 12 days longer, although a woman taking the pill for the 1st time for 5 years after the age of 30 will have her life span reduced on the average by 80 days. OC related morbidity and mortality mostly occur in women over 35 who smoke. Combined low dose OCs are safe for women who do not smoke, at least to 45 years of age and probably to the menopause. The prescription of OCs is also safe to the young adolescent. The pill does not interfere with maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary ovarian axis and does not increase the incidence of amenorrhoea, oligomenorrhoea or infertility in later life. Patients with contraindications to estrogen therapy are excluded from OC use (history of thromboembolism, major heart disease, liver disease, breast cancer). Low-dose (30-35 mcg estrogen-containing monophasic or triphasic) pills are recommended. Combined oral contraceptives contain either ethinyl estradiol (1.7 to 2 times more potent) or mestranol. After absorption the progestagens, norethisterone acetate, ethynodiol diacetate and lynoestrenol are all metabolized to norethisterone. The progestagen-only pill has about a 2% failure rate and poorer cycle control than the combined pill, but it lacks estrogenic, progestagenic and androgenic side effects. This pill is suitable for the lactating mother, for smokers over 35, for hypertensive patients, and for those with a history of thrombosis. The efficacy of the progestagen-only pill is restored in 3 days of pill taking. Postcoital contraception is an alternative: treatment can be given for at least 72 hours after intercourse. The Yuzpe method calls for the patient to take 2 combined oral contraceptive tablets containing levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol (Eugynon or Ovral) followed by a further 2 tablets 12 hours later. This regimen probably reduces the risk of pregnancy about tenfold and it is generally well tolerated.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]