Birth control pills may raise heart risks, even in Ex-users

Oral contraceptives, also called birth control pills, are taken by millions of women to help prevent pregnancy. But a European study has linked the pills to an increased risk of heart disease, even for women who no longer use the pills, giving shock to those women who are taking such pills for the last many years.

Conducted by researchers from Ghent University in Belgium, the new study is the first of its kind that linked the birth control pills to plaques that can be built up in women’s arteries and could potentially endanger the heart.

Some previous researches have linked the birth control pills to an increase blood pressure and also revealed that it may raise a woman's risk of getting blood clots, but no study has ever associated the pills with heart attacks or strokes.

"This is the first time we have documented that more atherosclerosis [plaque buildup] is a long-term risk of pill use," said lead researcher Dr. Ernst Rietzschel.

The researchers, who presented their work on Tuesday in an American Heart Association meeting, said that they found in their study that women who had consumed birth control pills were more likely to have a buildup of plaque in their arteries than those who did not used the oral contraceptives.

"The main concern is if you have higher plaque levels that you might develop a clot on one of these plaques and have a stroke or a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or sudden cardiac death," said Dr. Rietzschel. "That's the main risk with having plaque, with having atherosclerosis."

To reach their findings, Dr. Rietzschel and colleagues conducted a study, in which they included 1,301 healthy women ages 33 to 55, of whom 81 percent had used the oral contraceptives, for an average of 13 years.

After observing the ultrasound of the two big arteries, the carotid arteries on each side of the neck and femoral arteries in each leg, the researchers found that plaques in the key arteries was shot up by 20% to 30% for every decade of oral contraceptives use.

The study also associated the pill with potentially artery-clogging plaque in women, who no longer use oral contraception.

Rietzschel thinks the findings should not trigger alarm about the safety of the pill, as many of the women in the study used pills with higher doses of estrogen than are used today.

"Bottom line- Don’t discontinue your pill suddenly. Don't panic. Don't call your gynecologist tomorrow morning," Rietzschel said.

Introduced in the 1960s, the oral contraceptives are medicines are taken by mouth to help prevent pregnancy. Commonly known as birth control pill, the medicine is now the world's most popular form of contraception used by more than 12 million women in the United States and more than 60 million women worldwide, as per the estimates of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The contraceptive pill that revolutionized birth control practices uses hormones to suppress ovulation. The pill, typically containing estrogen or progesterone, inhibits ovulation and thereby prevents conception.