The combined oral contraceptive pill versus bromocriptine to suppress lactation in puerperium: a randomized double blind study.

A randomised double blind comparative study of 230 HIV infected mothers who had a normal delivery at 37-42 weeks' gestation were divided into two groups; 116 combined pill users and 114 bromocriptine users to suppress lactation. There were 33 cases (28.5%) of combined pills users and 29 cases (25.4%) of bromocriptine users who had breast engorgement without statistical difference. All of them had mild breast engorgement without any treatment except one case (0.9%) in the bromocriptine group had severe breast engorgement with puerperal fever and needed an analgesic drug. There were no side effects of the drugs. This study showed that combined pills were beneficial to suppress lactation in HIV infected mothers to prevent postnatal mother-to-child transmission because of low risk and low cost.

Cervical cancer in elderly Thais.

BACKGROUND : Neoplasm is the second most common cause of death in Thai women and cervical cancer is the most common. The prevalence of cervical cancer in Thai elderly women is unknown. What is the optimum time for a regular Papanicolaou smear check up. METHOD: A cross-sectional study of healthy elderly women (age >60 years) who lived within a 10-kilometer radius of Siriraj Hospital was carried out. All had their history taken and were examined by vaginal examination and Papanicolaou smear for cancer screening three times; on the day of enrollment, at one-year and two-years. RESULTS: Six hundred and eighty two women aged 60-88 years were recruited. There were 7 cases (1.0%) who had a positive Papanicolaou smear on the day of enrollment. Six cases (0.9%) had complete investigations: 2 cases (33.3%) had invasive cervical cancer stage III b, 4 cases had CIN III. There was one case out of 268 (0.4%) at one-year and one case out of 342 (0.3%) at two-years who had a positive Papanicolaou smear and the final diagnosis was CIN III. CONCLUSION : The prevalence of cervical cancer in Thai elderly women in this study was 1 per cent. Thai elderly women need a yearly Papanicolaou smear check up.

Venous thromboembolism and combined oral contraception in Thai women.

Hospital-based case-control study risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) associated with combined oral contraceptives (OC) in Thai women aged 20-44 years was 7.6. Body mass index (BMI) of cases were significantly higher than controls. The risk of VTE in women having BMI more than 25 kg/m2 was 5.8. Cigarette smoking and alcoholic used did not the risk of VTE in OC user. The OC prevalence in this study in cases and controls were 39.5% and 7.9% respectively. All combined pills composed of 0.05 mg. Or less estrogen and second generation progestogen. This study suggested that the prescription of combined oral contraception to Thai overweight women should be avoided because it increased the risk of venous thromboembolism by two risk factors.