May 26, 2015

expert reaction to paper and editorial examining contraceptive pill use and blood clot risk

A possible link between the use of oral contraceptive pills and risk of blood clots is the subject of a paper and an editorial published in the BMJ, with the authors reporting a greater risk for those using newer forms of the contraceptive.

Prof. Valerie Beral, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, said:

“There is nothing new about these findings – they just confirm what we have known for more than two decades now. The MHRA have prescribing guidelines directly relevant to the issue, which already incorporate previous evidence, and which were updated quite recently.”

* Paper: ‘Use of combined oral contraceptives and risk of venous thromboembolism: nested case-control studies using the QResearch and CPRD databases’ by Yana Vinogradova et al. published in the BMJ on Tuesday 26 May 2015.

^ǂ Editorial: ‘Fresh evidence confirms links between newer contraceptive pills and higher risk of venous thromboembolism’ by Susan S Jick published in the BMJ on Tuesday 26 May 2015.

Declared interests

Prof. Valerie Beral: “My research is funded by the MRC and Cancer Research UK.  I have not done research on the pill and VTE risk. I am a member of the Board of the government’s drug regulatory body, the MHRA.”