Guidelines for prescribing combined oral contraceptives

EDITOR,—The clinical and scientific committee of the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care has noted a wide range of expert views on the recent publications on the combined oral contraceptive and venous thromboembolism1 2 3 4 5 6 and has circulated a position paper.7 The new studies confirm that low dose combined oral contraceptives carry an extremely low risk for healthy women.

The overall risk of venous thromboembolism for users of combined oral contraceptives containing gestodene and desogestrel is close to the previous estimate for all low dose combined oral contraceptives.5 Combined oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel and norethisterone seem to be associated with a lower risk of non-fatal venous thromboembolism than previously reported (table).