BMJ 1999;318:69-70 ( 9 January )

Editorials

Oral contraception and health

Long term study of mortality shows no overall effect in a developed country

General practice p   96  

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Oral contraceptives have been studied more intensively than any other medication in history. Yet the recent brouhaha about third generation oral contraceptives and venous thromboembolism is only the latest in a series of "pill scares" over more than three decades. For some mysterious reason these periodic crises have been a particular feature of Britain; during the 1980s, for example, false alarms about major effects on breast cancer risk created greater consternation in Britain than elsewhere. While the British media have often produced more heat than light, scientists in Britain have contributed more than their share of evidence about the safety of oral contraceptives. One project that has become a landmark of epidemiology is the Royal College of General Practitioners' oral contraception study, and this week sees another publication from the study (p 96).1

In 1968 Dr Clifford Kay and his colleagues persuaded 1400 general practitioners to enrol 46 000 women (half of . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Mortality associated with oral contraceptive use: 25 year follow up of cohort of 46 000 women from Royal College of General Practitioners' oral contraception study
Valerie Beral, Carol Hermon, Clifford Kay, Philip Hannaford, Sarah Darby, and Gillian Reeves
BMJ 1999 318: 96-100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Graff-Iversen, S., Hammar, N., Thelle, D. S., Tonstad, S. (2006). Use of oral contraceptives and mortality during 14 years' follow-up of Norwegian women. Scand J Public Health 34: 11-16 [Abstract]  
  • Glasziou, P., Vandenbroucke, J., Chalmers, I. (2004). Assessing the quality of research. BMJ 328: 39-41 [Full text]  
  • McPherson, K. (1999). The Risk Is Real. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 84: 1828-1829 [Full text]  
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