Health groups say women using pill should be warned

11.50am

Doctors should be warning female patients about the risks of using two types of the oral contraceptive pill, a womens' health campaigner says.

The Ministry of Health yesterday warned that a recent study had shown that the contraceptive pills Estelle 35/35ED and Diane 35/35ED carried an increased risk of blood clots.

Today Womens' Health Action executive director Sandra Coney told National Radio that doctors should be responsible for contacting the women and warning them about the blood clot risk.

"I think definitely that the ministry should be prodding them (doctors) and pushing them in that direction. I think they take a large responsibility on when they are prescribing medications...

"We hear a lot about doctors having computerised records these days, so I would have thought it would be possible," Ms Coney said.

Ministry spokesman Stewart Jessamine said in a statement yesterday that the 25,000 women using the pill should not stop taking it and should contact their doctor to discuss the issue.

The study showed that the risk of blood clots in leg veins (or venous thromboembolism) with contraceptive pills containing oestrogen and cyproterone acetate was at least as great as that with third generation oral contraceptives.

Estelle and Diane were the only medicines containing oestrogen and cyproterone acetate available in New Zealand.

For every 100,000 women aged 15 to 44 who were not taking an hormonal contraceptive, between five and 10 would develop a blood clot in one year.

The risk of clotting was three to four times higher for women taking a second generation pill (for example Monofeme, Levlen ED and Triquilar) and six to eight times higher for third generation pills (such as Femodene, Marvelon, Melodene, Mercilon and Minulet).

Dr Jessamine said the risk of taking Estelle and Diane was at least as high as that of taking third generation pills.

He said Medsafe had provided GP and family planning clinics with updated patient information leaflets and advised them to discuss the pills' risks with women using them.

A media campaign would be run at the same time.

The Pharmacy Guild planned to contact women who had prescription for the pills to advise them of the new information, National Radio reported this morning.

Ms Coney said conveying information about the pills' risks in the media had its pitfalls and there needed to be a more proactive approach.

She said it was "too weak" to leave it up to the next occasion the woman visited her doctor to have her pills renewed.

But Dr Jessamine said some women did not want to be contacted about the contraceptive they used.

"Certainly there are teenagers who don't want their parents to know they are on the pill, there are women who don't want their partners to know they're on the pill," he said.

Three months was the longest a woman on either pill could go without learning about the risks because of the way it was prescribed.

"We also know from earlier work with the third generation pills that in fact most women do respond when they hear these adverts and see their doctors relatively quickly," Dr Jessamine said.

Ms Coney said: "There are obvious benefits to oral contraceptives and the risk that we're talking about is quite a small risk, so I don't think there's a case for taking them off the market.

"But there is a very strong case for making sure that women are very well informed and making an informed choice about the contraceptive they're using."

- NZPA

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