The Huffington Post (6/14) reports, "A sweeping new Danish study"
published in the New England Journal of Medicine "concludes that
hormonal contraception increases the risk of heart attack and stroke,
but the overall risk for individual women is very low."
On its website, ABC News
(6/14, Mahand) reports, "In the study, researchers looked at more than
1.6 million women over a period of 15 years and tracked all the
contraceptive measures they took -- including the pill, the vaginal
ring, intrauterine device, subcutaneous implants, skin patches and
intramuscular injections." The investigators "found...that although the
absolute risk of stroke and heart attacks associated with the use
of contraception was low, the chances of these problems occurring was
0.9 to 1.7 times higher on estrogen at a low dose. These risks
increased to a factor of 1.3 to 2.3 when a higher dose of estrogen was
used."
The Boston Globe
(6/14, Kotz) "Daily Dose" blog reports that "in absolute terms the
risk is very low, because young women under age 50 rarely have heart
attacks or strokes."
MedPage Today
(6/14, Neale) reports, "Among other types of hormonal contraception,
the vaginal ring was associated with a greater risk of thrombotic stroke
(RR 2.5, 95% CI 1.4 to 4.4), but not MI. Progestin-only contraceptives
and subcutaneous implants were not associated with increased risks of
stroke or MI."
WebMD (6/14, Boyles) reports, "In an editorial
published with the study, Arizona State University researcher Diana B.
Petitti, MD, MPH, writes that the Danish study should reassure women
and their doctors about the safety of oral contraceptives." Petitti
"notes that
the small increase in risk could perhaps be eliminated if women with
risk factors for heart attack and stroke, such as smokers and those with
high blood pressure, avoided combination hormonal contraceptives."
Also covering the story are Reuters (6/14, Emery), HeartWire (6/14, Nainggolan), and HealthDay (6/14, Salamon).
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