Side effects of oral contraceptives.

Abstract

The clinical side reactions and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase levels have been followed in 146 patients who had taken Anovlar and Ortho-Novin. Urine volumes and excretion of free and conjugated Porter-Silber chromogens alkaline phosphatase and lactic dehydrogenase isoenzymes were determined in most cases. The BSP retention was not found to vary in different stages of the menstrual cycle in ten normal subjects. The frequency of side reactions during the first cycle when the pills were taken was approximately equal to the previously reported frequencies; the frequency of nausea with Ortho-Novin was relatively high possibly owing to the high number of psychiatric patients in the series. SGPT levels were high in 4% of the patients and no significant difference in the level were found in the two series. The urine volume revealed tendency to increase during the first year in which pills were taken. The excretion of Porter-Silber chromogens was at the lower normal limit and no significant differences were noted in the excreted amounts of free and conjugated chromogens. Serum alkaline phosphatase determined in reaction conditions optimal for the human placental enzyme was half the normal mean value. The lactic dehydrogenase level decreased slightly but the relative amounts of isoenzymes determined by acrylamide gel electrophoresis were unchanged.((FULL TEXT))