‘Pill Safer Than Pregnancy"

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32394, 5 September 1970, Page 14

‘Pill Safer Than Pregnancy"

The impression given by the presentation of a Press Association report of three suspected deaths implicating oral contraceptives, was described yesterday as gravely misleading by three members of the working party for research into medical, social and psychological aspects of sexual behaviour.

The statement was made by Dr R. V. Nicoll, Dr Janet

Irwin, and Professor R. A. M. Gregson. Any deaths caused by the pill were statistically very small, and at present it was more than 10 times safer to be on a suitably prescribed pill than to accept the normal risks of pregnancy. The risk of death through pregnancy was one in 3000, compared with less than one in 40,000 through the use of the pill, the statement said. The report said that 29 cases of thrombo-embolism, three of them fatal, occurred in New Zealand this year after the use of oral contraceptives.

The source of the report was the annual report of the Committee on Adverse Drug Reactions printed in the latest “New Zealand Medical Journal.” The statement said that the implications of the deaths mentioned by the committee could only be assessed in its propert statistical and medical context.

“There are at present an estimated 124,000 to 135,000 New Zealand women using one or other of the many oral contraceptives of various biochemical compositions. These three deaths, if confirmed as due to some variety of oral contraception, represent a mean death rate of less than one in 40,000 a women-year, for all types of pills averaged and not for the more modern

low-dose pills now coming into general use.

“Cumulative statistics have established the death risk of oral contraceptives, for 50 million woman-years use, as between 10 and 15 a million. This estimate is unduly high for current oral contraceptive formulations. “In the same period 27 maternal deaths in New Zealand were reported to the Maternal Mortality Committee. This represents a death rate of about one in 3000 of pregnant women. We are informed by a specialist that about 15 of these deaths were in pregnancies associated with failures of contraceptives of other than the oral type, or with unpremeditated conception.

“It is at present more than 10 times safer to be on a suitably prescribed pill than to accept the normal risks of marriage. Few would argue against marriage because of the inescapable statistical risks of death in childbirth.”

Dr J. M. Louisson, press liaison officer for the Canterbury division of the Medical Association of New Zealand, made a statement based on specialist obstetrical and gynaecological consultation. “All surveys show that the Pill is a reliable contraceptive. The risk of thrombo-embolism must be weighed against the risk of pregnancy, and when this is done it is seen that not only are unwanted pregnancies avoided, but over all many lives are saved. The risk

of maternal death in pregnancy, is one in 3000. and the risk with the Pill is about otje in 60,000; on balance the pill comes out as the safest form of contraceptive available. “An unreliable contraceptive with a high failure rate has a built-in risk to the mother who bears the resulting unwanted pregnancy,” he said.