A BMJ study has found more evidence that women using the transdermal contraceptive patch or vaginal ring do indeed face higher thrombosis risks than those taking their contraceptive orally.
Using Danish national registries, researchers studied over 1.5 million women without prior thrombotic disease or cancer, who were not pregnant. Overall, the incidence of venous thrombosis was 6.2 events per 10,000 exposure-years with combination oral contraceptives, 9.7 per 10,000 with the patch, and 7.8 per 10,000 with the ring.
Basically, when compared with women who used oral contraceptives, those who used the patch or ring had about twice the thrombosis risk. Compared to the women who didn’t use any hormonal method, the patch and ring users had eightfold and sixfold increases in risk, respectively.
The use of these contraceptive were not significantly associated with thrombosis risk.
The authors conclude that “women are generally advised to use combined oral contraceptives … rather than to use transdermal patches or vaginal rings.”
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