Birth control pills and cardiovascular risk

Filed in archive Studies on July 15, 2005

It has been known that oral contraceptives (OCPs) slightly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. A recent study confirms these findings:

Overall, the use of low-dose oral contraceptives was associated with a doubling of the risk of cardiovascular outcomes (myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke), the authors report. With low-dose oral contraceptive use, the relative risk of myocardial infarction was 1.84 and the RR of ischemic stroke was 2.12, the report indicates.

Although the relative risk may be higher (an increase 84% and 112% for heart attack and stroke respectively), the absolute risk is small. The authors also put the findings into perspective:

"The modern use of low-dose oral contraceptives, limited to healthy women and restricted in time, should not increase noticeably the incidence of these adverse outcomes, which might be outweighed by the benefits of contraception," the investigators conclude.

OCPs are not harmless. Patients should be aware of the increased cardiovascular risk. Those already at high risk for these events (i.e. smokers) should certainly consider other methods of contraception. ("Low-Dose Oral Contraceptives Increase Cardiovascular Disease Risk", Reuters/Medscape, Jul.14; Baillargeon et al. "Association between the Current Use of Low-Dose Oral Contraceptives and Cardiovascular arterial Disease: A Meta-Analysis", J Clin Endocrinol Metab., Jul.2005)