Selected effects of combined oral contraceptives use
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2022.12.09.031Keywords
oral contraceptive use, risk of cancer, depression, side effects of hormonal contraception, venous thrombosisAbstract
Introduction and objective:: Combined oral contraceptives (COCs) are one of the most popular methods of contraception worldwide. The universality of this method leads to the constant analysis of its influence on the female body. The purpose of this study is to discuss selected side effects of COC use.
Review methods: In July 2022, articles found in the Medline (Pubmed) and Google Scholar databases were selected by using the following keywords: oral contraceptive use; risk of cancer; depression; side effects of hormonal contraception; venous thrombosis.
Brief description of the state of knowledge: COC use has been shown to be associated with a 2-6 fold increase in the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE). The component responsible for this side effect was initially thought to be synthetic estrogen - ethinylestradiol. It is now recognized as having the greatest influence on mood disorders. An increased risk of cancer has been reported in women taking COCs in case of breast cancer and liver cancer. Inverse relationship was observed in colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer.
Summary: COC use can have side effects, but it also has many health benefits. Therefore, it is important to constantly learn about this topic and minimize the risk of adverse side effects.
References
Oedingen C, Scholz S, Razum O. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of combined oral contraceptives on the risk of venous thromboembolism: The role of the progestogen type and estrogen dose. Thromb Res. 2018 May;165:68-78. doi: 10.1016/j.thromres.2018.03.005. Epub 2018 Mar 15. PMID: 29573722.
Caserta D, Ralli E, Matteucci E, Bordi G, Mallozzi M, Moscarini M. Combined oral contraceptives: health benefits beyond contraception. Panminerva Med. 2014 Sep;56(3):233-44. PMID: 25056245.
Shukla, A., Jamwal, R., & Bala, K. (2017). Alcohol use disorder (AUD) View project ED project View project ADVERSE EFFECT OF COMBINED ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS. Article in Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 10. https://doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2017.v10i1.14565
Stegeman BH, de Bastos M, Rosendaal FR, van Hylckama Vlieg A, Helmerhorst FM, Stijnen T, Dekkers OM. Different combined oral contraceptives and the risk of venous thrombosis: systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMJ. 2013 Sep 12;347:f5298. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f5298. PMID: 24030561; PMCID: PMC3771677.
Rott H. Thrombotic risks of oral contraceptives. Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol. 2012 Aug;24(4):235-40. doi: 10.1097/GCO.0b013e328355871d. PMID: 22729096.
Martínez F, Avecilla A. Combined hormonal contraception and venous thromboembolism. Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care. 2007 Jun;12(2):97-106. doi: 10.1080/13625180701300194. PMID: 17559006.
Cosmi B, Legnani C, Bernardi F, Coccheri S, Palareti G. Role of family history in identifying women with thrombophilia and higher risk of venous thromboembolism during oral contraception. Arch Intern Med. 2003 May 12;163(9):1105-9. doi: 10.1001/archinte.163.9.1105. Erratum in: Arch Intern Med. 2003 Aug 11-25;163(15):1778. PMID: 12742811.
van Vlijmen EF, Brouwer JL, Veeger NJ, Eskes TK, de Graeff PA, van der Meer J. Oral contraceptives and the absolute risk of venous thromboembolism in women with single or multiple thrombophilic defects: results from a retrospective family cohort study. Arch Intern Med. 2007 Feb 12;167(3):282-9. doi: 10.1001/archinte.167.3.282. PMID: 17296885.
Pomp ER, Rosendaal FR, Doggen CJ. Smoking increases the risk of venous thrombosis and acts synergistically with oral contraceptive use. Am J Hematol. 2008 Feb;83(2):97-102. doi: 10.1002/ajh.21059. PMID: 17726684.
Martinelli I, Battaglioli T, Mannucci PM. Pharmacogenetic aspects of the use of oral contraceptives and the risk of thrombosis. Pharmacogenetics. 2003 Oct;13(10):589-94. doi: 10.1097/00008571-200310000-00002. PMID: 14515057.
Crook D, Godsland IF, Worthington M, Felton CV, Proudler AJ, Stevenson JC. A comparative metabolic study of two low-estrogen-dose oral contraceptives containing desogestrel or gestodene progestins. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1993 Nov;169(5):1183-9. doi: 10.1016/0002-9378(93)90279-r. PMID: 8238183.
Godsland IF, Crook D, Simpson R, Proudler T, Felton C, Lees B, Anyaoku V, Devenport M, Wynn V. The effects of different formulations of oral contraceptive agents on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. N Engl J Med. 1990 Nov 15;323(20):1375-81. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199011153232003. PMID: 2146499.
Silva-Bermudez LS, Toloza FJK, Perez-Matos MC, de Souza RJ, Banfield L, Vargas-Villanueva A, Mendivil CO. Effects of oral contraceptives on metabolic parameters in adult premenopausal women: a meta-analysis. Endocr Connect. 2020 Oct;9(10):978-998. doi: 10.1530/EC-20-0423. PMID: 33048062; PMCID: PMC7576645.
Rosenthal AD, Shu XO, Jin F, Yang G, Elasy TA, Li Q, Xu HX, Gao YT, Zheng W. Oral contraceptive use and risk of diabetes among Chinese women. Contraception. 2004 Mar;69(3):251-7. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2003.10.015. PMID: 14969675.
Godsland IF, Walton C, Felton C, Proudler A, Patel A, Wynn V. Insulin resistance, secretion, and metabolism in users of oral contraceptives. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1992 Jan;74(1):64-70. doi: 10.1210/jcem.74.1.1530790. PMID: 1530790.
Shawe J, Mulnier H, Nicholls P, Lawrenson R. Use of hormonal contraceptive methods by women with diabetes. Prim Care Diabetes. 2008 Dec;2(4):195-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pcd.2008.10.003. Epub 2008 Nov 18. PMID: 19019754.
Gourdy P. Diabetes and oral contraception. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Feb;27(1):67-76. doi: 10.1016/j.beem.2012.11.001. Epub 2012 Dec 19. PMID: 23384747.
Wang Q, Würtz P, Auro K, Morin-Papunen L, Kangas AJ, Soininen P, Tiainen M, Tynkkynen T, Joensuu A, Havulinna AS, Aalto K, Salmi M, Blankenberg S, Zeller T, Viikari J, Kähönen M, Lehtimäki T, Salomaa V, Jalkanen S, Järvelin MR, Perola M, Raitakari OT, Lawlor DA, Kettunen J, Ala-Korpela M. Effects of hormonal contraception on systemic metabolism: cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence. Int J Epidemiol. 2016 Oct;45(5):1445-1457. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw147. Epub 2016 Aug 18. PMID: 27538888; PMCID: PMC5100613.
Cibula D, Gompel A, Mueck AO, La Vecchia C, Hannaford PC, Skouby SO, Zikan M, Dusek L. Hormonal contraception and risk of cancer. Hum Reprod Update. 2010 Nov-Dec;16(6):631-50. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmq022. Epub 2010 Jun 12. PMID: 20543200.
Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative reanalysis of individual data on 53 297 women with breast cancer and 100 239 women without breast cancer from 54 epidemiological studies. Lancet. 1996 Jun 22;347(9017):1713-27. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)90806-5. PMID: 8656904.
Barańska A, Błaszczuk A, Kanadys W, Malm M, Drop K, Polz-Dacewicz M. Oral Contraceptive Use and Breast Cancer Risk Assessment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies, 2009-2020. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Nov 12;13(22):5654. doi: 10.3390/cancers13225654. PMID: 34830807; PMCID: PMC8616467.
Gierisch JM, Coeytaux RR, Urrutia RP, Havrilesky LJ, Moorman PG, Lowery WJ, Dinan M, McBroom AJ, Hasselblad V, Sanders GD, Myers ER. Oral contraceptive use and risk of breast, cervical, colorectal, and endometrial cancers: a systematic review. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Nov;22(11):1931-43. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-0298. Epub 2013 Sep 6. PMID: 24014598.
M. Kamani, U. Akgor, and M. Gültekin, “Review of the literature on combined oral contraceptives and cancer,” ecancermedicalscience, vol. 16, Jun. 2022, doi: 10.3332/ECANCER.2022.1416.
Xia YY, Kotsopoulos J. Beyond the pill: contraception and the prevention of hereditary ovarian cancer. Hered Cancer Clin Pract. 2022 Jun 6;20(1):21. doi: 10.1186/s13053-022-00227-z. PMID: 35668475; PMCID: PMC9169328.
Biyazin T, Yilma A, Yetwale A, Fenta B, Dagnaw Y. Knowledge and attitude about human papillomavirus vaccine among female high school students at Jimma town, Ethiopia. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2022 Dec 31;18(1):2036522. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2022.2036522. Epub 2022 Mar 2. PMID: 35236252; PMCID: PMC9009896.
Amitay EL, Niedermaier T, Alwers E, Chang-Claude J, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H. Reproductive Factors and Colorectal Cancer Risk: A Population-Based Case-Control Study. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2022 Jul 1;6(4):pkac042. doi: 10.1093/jncics/pkac042. PMID: 35642982; PMCID: PMC9251386.
Bahamondes L, Valeria Bahamondes M, Shulman LP. Non-contraceptive benefits of hormonal and intrauterine reversible contraceptive methods. Hum Reprod Update. 2015 Sep-Oct;21(5):640-51. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmv023. Epub 2015 Jun 1. PMID: 26037216.
An N. Oral Contraceptives Use and Liver Cancer Risk: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Oct;94(43):e1619. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000001619. PMID: 26512555; PMCID: PMC4985369.
Shao C, Tang H, Wang X, He J, Wang P, Wu N. Oral Contraceptive and Glioma Risk: A Prospective Cohort Study and Meta-Analysis. Front Public Health. 2022 Jul 14;10:878233. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.878233. PMID: 35910887; PMCID: PMC9330220.
Mu E, Kulkarni J. Hormonal contraception and mood disorders. Aust Prescr. 2022 Jun;45(3):75-79. doi: 10.18773/austprescr.2022.025. Epub 2022 Jun 1. PMID: 35755988; PMCID: PMC9218393.
Anderl C, de Wit AE, Giltay EJ, Oldehinkel AJ, Chen FS. Association between adolescent oral contraceptive use and future major depressive disorder: a prospective cohort study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;63(3):333-341. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13476. Epub 2021 Jul 12. PMID: 34254301; PMCID: PMC9291927.
Khafagy GM, Shalaby HL, Saad NE, Hasan MD. Effect of the Monthly Injectable Combined Contraceptives versus Oral Contraceptive Pills on Mood. Korean J Fam Med. 2021 Nov;42(6):471-476. doi: 10.4082/kjfm.20.0106. Epub 2021 Nov 20. PMID: 34871488; PMCID: PMC8648491.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Julia Bogucka, Anna Brzyska, Natalia Domańska, Małgorzata Bojarska, Natalia Wilczek, Halina Piecewicz-Szczęsna
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The periodical offers access to content in the Open Access system under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 637
Number of citations: 0
