This can be a tough pill to swallow.
About 250 million women worldwide are believed to use a form of hormonal contraception. Past research has suggested a link between the use of synthetic hormones to prevent pregnancy and an increased risk of stroke and heart attack.
Scientists in Denmark examined the risks associated with vaginal rings, skin patches, intrauterine devices, implants inserted under the skin, injections, estrogen-grunt pills and only progestin pills.
Hormonal contraceptives contain estrogen and progestin or only progestin to reflect hormones that occur naturally in a woman’s body. Estrogen regulates the menstrual cycle while progestin is a synthetic version of progesterone, an essential hormone for pregnancy support.
For their study, researchers tracked national recipe data over 25 years for more than 2 million Danish women between 15 and 49.
Women were excluded if they had a history of the use of antipsychotics, cancer, liver disease, kidney disease, polycistic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, infertility treatment, hormone therapy or other conditions.
After regulating factors such as age, education, high blood pressure and diabetes, researchers tied the estrogen-progestin pill-collocually known as the birth control pill-twice the risk of ischemic stroke and heart attack.
This translates into an extra stroke for every 4,760 women taking the pill for one year and an additional heart attack for every 10,000 women per year of use.
Ischemic stroke, when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked, is the most common type of stroke.
Estrogen-Progestin contraceptives that are not pills, such as vaginal rings and skin pieces, were also accompanied by elevated risks.
The vaginal ring increased the ischemic risk of a 2.4-fold stroke and the risk of a 3.8-fold heart attack, while the piece raised the risk of a 3.4-fold stroke.
Products only progestin, including “mini pill” and implants, became better. IUD only with Progestin was the only contraceptive that was not associated with a higher risk.
The researchers noted that their observation study was their own, so no strong conclusions could be drawn due to the cause and the effect. There could be other factors that prompted shocks and heart attacks that they did not consider.
“Although absolute risks [of these incidents] They were low, “Researchers writes this week in BMJ,” Clinics should include potential risk … in their evaluation of benefits and risks when describing hormonal contraceptives. “
In an accompanying editorial, the royal institute of technology post -chocolate scholar Therese Johansson noted that arterial thrombosis – when a blood clot is formed in an artery, potentially leading to a heart attack or stroke – is rare in young women.
However, the side effects are serious and the use of hormonal contraception is widespread.
Johansson is calling for campaigns to raise awareness of the potential risks associated with various contraceptive methods.
“These initiatives must be supported by training for health care providers to provide sustainable and evidence -based advice,” she wrote in BMJ.
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