Year-round contraception safely ends periods

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Continuous treatment with an oral contraceptive combination of levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol (LNG/EE) can safely eliminate menstruation in most women, according to study results appearing in the medical journal Contraception.

"This is the first large study of a continuous low-dose combined oral contraceptive regimen with daily dosing for 365 days per year," Dr. David F. Archer, from the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, and colleagues note. "The regimen was shown to an effective contraceptive and was also effective in inhibiting menstrual cycle bleeding."

The study involved 2134 healthy women, between 18 and 49 years of age, who were treated with LNG/EE daily for 1 year.

While using LNG/EE, 19 women became pregnant. However, in 15 of these cases, the pregnancy was related to human error, such as missing one or more daily pills and not properly compensating with increased doses subsequently.

During the last month of treatment, 59 percent of women reported no menstrual cycles and 79 percent reported an absence of bleeding. The number of bleeding and spotting days decreased progressively as the study went on.

Continuous use of the pills was generally well tolerated with side effects similar to what is seen with cyclic oral contraceptives.

"The continuous LNG/EE oral contraceptive offers women a contraceptive option with several noncontraceptive benefits, one of which is a reduction in the number of uterine bleeding days per year," the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: Contraception, December 2006.