Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

News The Big Picture

Out of stock: summit highlights global lack of access to contraceptives

BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3377 (Published 11 July 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;358:j3377

Rapid Response:

Lack of oral contraceptives may increase women's mortality

Recent evidence from long term observations of hundreds of thousands of women, in 10 European Countries, clearly demonstrated that the use of oral contraceptives reduced mortality by roughly 10%. [1][2]
Newer oral contraceptives increase womens' overall survival.
References
[1] doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0484-3.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4627614/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28188769

Competing interests: No competing interests

12 July 2017
Stavros Saripanidis
Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece