ABSTRACT
Fibrinogen levels were determined in 100 women on oral contraceptive pills (OCP), aged 17-46 years, and 100 apparently healthy women with regular menstruation and no previous history of hormonal therapy, aged 20-40 years, who served as controls. The women on OCP had significantly higher plasma fibrinogen concentration than the control (P less than 0.001). There was a cumulative increase in plasma fibrinogen level from three months of usage. We conclude that prolonged use of OCP may result in the development of circulatory and vascular disorders related to hyper-fibrinogenaemia and other clotting factors.
PIP: In Benin and Sagamu, Nigeria, health workers drew 10 ml of venous blood from 200 17-46 year old women as close as possible to their midcycle as part of a study to examine changes in plasma fibrinogen levels in women using biphasic, combined oral contraceptives (OCs). The 100 women in the OC group were younger than the 100 healthy women with regular menstruation who had not used hormones for the last 6 months (23.03 years vs. 30 years). Laboratory personnel used the clot-weight procedure to measure the plasma fibrinogen level. The plasma fibrinogen levels were significantly higher in women using OCs than they were in the controls (p .001). The levels increased with duration of OC use (3.09 g/l at 3-6 months, 3.33 g/l at 7 months-1 year, and 3.37 g/l at 1.5-4 years). 95% of the cases used the low-dose estrogen OCs, and they had lower plasma fibrinogen levels than the 5% of cases using the high-dose OCs (3 g/l vs. 3.5 g/l). In both cases, however, these increased fibrinogen levels were within the normal range. Nevertheless, these raised levels may lead to the development of thromboembolism complications, especially as duration of OC use increases. The researchers planned to conduct a more extensive prospective study to determine the importance of abnormal coagulation fibrinolytic changes in women using OCs.
