The Sexual Revolutionaries are in an uproar over the Hobby Lobby decision. The idea that anyone anywhere objects to paying for someone else’s contraception
for any reason whatsoever is all it takes to be labeled “anti-woman.” Let’s take a sober-minded look at a serious question: Are contraceptive drugs
really pro-woman?
A 2012 study[1] of 1.6 million Danish women shows that women who used oral
contraceptives at intermediate doses, had a risk of strokes that was 1.3 to 2.3 times as high as the risk among non-users of contraceptives. Meanwhile,
the lowest dose oral contraceptives had risks that were .9 to 1.7 times as great. That is to say, the lower doses are safer, but still not risk-free.[2]
Should we be worried? Listen to the chipper reports on this study. An article in Web MD, was
entitled, “Heart, Stroke Risk Low With Birth Control Pills: No-Estrogen and Lowest-Estrogen Contraceptives Safest, Study Finds.”
“Risk today is significantly lower than it was decades ago in the era of high-dose pills,” says University of Copenhagen professor Ojvind Lidegaard,
MD, who led the research….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.”
Well, perhaps, the risks are lower
than they used to be. But still, the risks of strokes are nearly doubled compared with women who did not use oral contraceptives at all. Isn’t that
risk worth taking a bit more seriously? Isn’t that reason enough to explore some non-hormonal family planning alternatives? The Boston Globe continues
with the cheerful reporting. The title of its article on this study, was, I’m not making this up, “Birth
control pills raise risk of heart attacks and strokes, but only slightly.” Listen to this upbeat quotation.
“I would say in many ways, this is a good news story,” said Dr. Isaac Schiff, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “This
is a lengthy, large study that helps to confirm that the birth control pill is relatively safe, recognizing that no drug is 100 percent safe.”
Good news? Doesn’t it depend on how much of a risk increase the woman taking the pills, considers too much? Just to put this in perspective, let’s
compare the risk factors associated with oral contraception to the risks associated with smoking. According to the very same Danish study of
1.6 million women, smokers have a 1.6 times the risk of stroke as non-smokers. [3] This stroke risk associated with smoking is comparable to
the risk associated with the three forms of hormonal contraception most commonly used in the study: 1.8, 1.7 and 1.5 respectively.[4]
Let’s rephrase the Hobby Lobby and HHS Mandate controversy: the federal government demands that every employer in America provide drugs to perfectly
healthy women, as if it were “preventive care,” even though these drugs have health risks comparable to smoking. Remind me: who is it that is making
“War on Women?”
Help us keep this valuable information coming! Become a monthly donor to the Ruth Institute!
Citations
[1] ” Thrombotic Stroke and Myocardial Infarction with Hormonal Contraception,” Lidegaard, Øjvind, Løkkegaard, Ellen, Jensen, Aksel, Skovlund, Charlotte
Wessel, Keiding, Niels, New England Journal of Medicine, June 14, 2012 366(24):2257, http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1111840.
[2] Ibid, Table 2, and discussion in penultimate paragraph. “(W)omen who used oral contraceptives with ethinyl estradiol at a dose of 30 to 40 μg had
a risk of arterial thrombosis that was 1.3 to 2.3 times as high as the risk among nonusers, and women who used pills with ethinyl estradiol at a dose
of 20 μg had a risk that was 0.9 to 1.7 times as high.” That is, women who used the lowest dose pills had a risk that was 0.9 to 1.7 times as high.
[3] Table 1. [4] To be specific, Table 2 shows the following drugs and doses as the most commonly used forms of oral contraception in the Danish
study: Gestodene at 30-40 microgram dosage had 1.3 million woman years of use, and an increased risk factor of 1.8, and Gestodene at the 20 microgram
dose has over 564,000 woman years of use and a risk factor of 1.7. Desogestrel at the 20 microgram dosage has almost 700,000 woman years of use
and a risk factor of 1.5, compared with non-users of hormonal contraception.
