Healthcare

Birth control is contraceptive techniques planned for the limitation and control of the number of children.
One of techniques that are often used by women is through a pill.

However, since old oral contraceptive of second progestin generation, levonorgestrel, associated with the risk of gallblader disease, the investigators investigated whether new oral birth control, fourth generation of progestin combined with ethinyl estradiol (desogestrel, drospirenone, and norethindrone)may associate with similar risk.

Due to this, the investigators looked at the database of IMS LifeLink Health Plan Claims comprised of medical and pharmaceutical claims from over 90 health plans across the U.S. for cholecystectomy (a surgical procedure to remove gallbladder) or hospital admission for gallbladder disease in women who were using new and old oral contraceptive from 1997 to 2009.

Reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on April 18, 2011, the study authors, Mahyar Etminan, PharmD, MSc, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues found that although small, new birth control pills significantly increase the risk of gallbladder disease when compared with old oral contraceptive.

They write, “In a large cohort of women using oral contraceptives, we found a small, statistically significant increase in the risk of gallbladder disease associated with desogestrel, drospirenone and norethindrone compared with levonorgestrel.”

In addition they write, “The surge in the number of reported cases of gallbladder disease facilitated through the media may have contributed in making drospirenone appear to be associated with a higher risk of gallbladder disease compared with older contraceptives.”