Medical Grand Rounds from the University of Alabama Medical Center.

Abstract

Dr. Charles Flowers chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Alabama Medical Center discusses indications for contraindications and risks involved and the current thinking on the pill. According to Dr. Flowers 80% of patients can take oral contraceptives 20% cannot. There is no way of predicting which of the general female public will be in each category. Women who suffer from migraines or who develop or change their type of headache should not be given pills. Young girls who menstruate irregularly or scantily have low fertility and should not be given pills. Women with a tendency to vaginal yeast infections should not use orals. There is no evidence of pill-related vaginal or cervical cancer increase and it is thought that pills reduce uterine cancer incidence. Pills cause no increased eye abnormalities no change in thyroid function and seem to retard the aging process. The crude death rate of women not using any contraception is 5 times higher than the death rate among users. The following 2 attempts to develop safer pills are being made: 1)to reduce the estrogen content to .05 mg; and 2)to develop a mini pill which would contain progestin and no estrogen.