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PAST USE OF ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES IS NOT A CARDIAC RISK FACTOR.

Current use of oral contraceptives is a well- established risk factor for cardiovascular disease, particularly among older women and smokers, and particularly with the older contraceptive preparations using higher hormone dosages.

Harvard's Nurses' Health Study has followed a large group of women for over a decade. In the latest report from that study, the investigators find that results from a cohort of 119,061 women who were 30 to 55 in 1976 reveal no increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease among subjects who had used oral contraceptives in the past but were not current users. After adjustment for other risk factors, the relative risks (as compared with women who had never used oral contraceptives) were 0.8 for major coronary disease, 1.0 for stroke, and 0.9 for death from all cardiovascular causes. There was also no greater "dose-response" risk among past users as a function of the duration of contraceptive use.

— ALK

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine November 25, 1988

Citation(s):

Stampfer M J; Willett W C; Colditz G A; Speizer F E; Hennekens C H. A prospective study of past use of oral contraceptive agents and risk of cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 1988 Nov 17 319 1313-1317.

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