Abstract
Combined oral contraceptive pills (COCP) use, is link to the development of precancerous cervical lesions. There are variations in reports across studied populations. Our study was a comparative, cross-sectional study. SPSS version 20 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for data analysis and P-Value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The Prevalence of precancerous cervical lesions in the Exposed and Control groups were 16.4% (9/55) and 14.5% (8/55) respectively (P = of 0.79). In the exposed group, four out of the nine women that had abnormal cervical cytology results had high grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HGSIL) while only one out of 8 women that had abnormal cytology results in the control group had HGSIL. We found no significant difference in the prevalence of pre-cancerous cervical lesions between users and non-users of COCP. However, women who used COCP had higher cases of HGSIL when compared with the control group. Therefore, we suggest relatively short schedule of cervical cytology screening for this group of women relative to the general population.
Highlights
Combined oral contraceptive pills have been of great benefit in fertility regulation over the years, reports suggest that there may be increased risk of development of cervical pre-cancerous lesions and cancer of the cervix following the use of combined oral contraceptive pills especially over a long period [1]
This study was conducted at the family planning, Gynaecology and Gynae-oncology clinics of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) and Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BHUTH) all located in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria
The Prevalence rates of precancerous lesions of the cervix, from this study are similar between the two groups but the use of combined oral contraceptive pills may be associated with increased risk of occurrence of high grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HGSIL) compared to non-users of COCPs
Summary
Combined oral contraceptive pills have been of great benefit in fertility regulation over the years, reports suggest that there may be increased risk of development of cervical pre-cancerous lesions and cancer of the cervix following the use of combined oral contraceptive pills especially over a long period [1]. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide [2]. In Northern Nigeria, cancer of the cervix appears to be the commonest cancer in women while in the southern part of Nigeria, cervical cancer is second to breast cancer [3]. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is an established risk factor for cervical cancer and its precursor lesions but it is not sufficient in it itself or by itself because not all women who have HPV infection develop carcinoma of the cervix [5]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
