The third generation pill controversy ("continued")

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7305.119

BMJ 2001;323:119-120 ( 21 July )

Editorials

The third generation pill controversy ("continued")

The risks are still small compared with those of pregnancy

Papers p 131

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

The debate about the safety of third generation oral contraceptives shows no sign of fading away. Since it began in 1995 themain participants have been epidemiologists and clinical pharmacologists.There has been little input from the clinicians who prescribeoral contraceptives or from the women who usethem.

About 80% of British women use the pill at some time between the ages of 16 and 24.¹ It was this age group that paid theprice of the October 1995 scare, prompted by the publicity surroundingthe announcement of the Committee on Safety of Medicines thatthird generation oral contraceptives had a higher risk of inducingvenous thromboembolism. In the first quarter of 1996 in Englandand Wales there were 6198 more abortions than in the previousquarter (a 16% rise), and the increase continued more slowly until1998.² Doctors who counsel women with unplanned pregnancy arestill angry about the amount of human misery . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Third generation oral contraceptives and risk of venous thrombosis: meta-analysis: Jeanet M Kemmeren, Ale Algra, and Diederick E Grobbee
BMJ 2001 323: 131. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Website of the week: Oral contraceptives: Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2001 323: 172. [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Drife, J. (2003). Thromboembolism: Reducing maternal death and disability during pregnancy. Br Med Bull 67: 177-190 [Abstract] [Full text]
de Jong-van den Berg, L., Tobi, H., Bijker, B., van den Berg, P. (2003). Influence of the third generation pill controversy on prescriptions for oral contraceptives among first time users: population based study. BMJ 326: 254-254 [Full text]
(2001). Third-Generation Oral Contraceptives and VTE: A Reanalysis. JWatch General 2001: 4-4 [Full text]