![Low Suicide Rates Reported in Women Using Hormonal Contraceptives
Low Suicide Rates Reported in Women Using Hormonal Contraceptives](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/contraceptive-pills1.jpg)
‘Women using hormonal contraceptives that contain ethinylestradiol were found to have a reduced risk of attempting suicide.’
![pinterest](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/pinterest.png)
![twitter](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/twitter.png)
![facebook](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/facebook.png)
![whatsapp](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/whatsapp.png)
![linkedin](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/linkedin.png)
![pinterest](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/pinterest.png)
Good News for Contraceptive Users
Now a new in-depth study shows that rates of attempted suicides in women using hormonal contraception are actually lower than in women who do not use hormonal contraception.Presenting the research at the European Congress of Psychiatry, Lead Researcher, Dr Elena Toffol (University of Helsinki) said: “We set out to verify previous data, so this is not what we expected, and it’s good news for contraceptive users”.
She continued: “Women, especially younger women, have higher rates of depression and attempted suicide than men of similar ages. Many women using hormonal contraceptives, especially contraceptive pills, report mood changes as a side effect. Initial reports from 2018 and 2020 had indicated that the use of hormonal contraceptives was associated with a higher number/risk of suicides and suicide attempts. We set out to confirm this data”.
The researchers, from the University of Helsinki, used several Finnish national databases to compare attempted suicide rates of hormonal contraceptive users and non-users using data from the 2017-2019 period. They took results from 587,823 women, which represents around 50% of the total number of women in the 15-49 age group in Finland.
Half of these women had used hormonal contraceptives, including pills, implants, patches, and rings.
Advertisement
In total the researchers saw 474 cases of attempted suicide in women who didn’t use hormonal contraceptives, with only 344 attempts in women who used hormonal contraceptives. Women not using contraceptives had a 37% greater odds of attempting suicide in comparison with those using hormonal contraceptives.
Advertisement
"The data indicates redeemed prescriptions, and of course it may be that some of these prescriptions were redeemed but not used. Overall though, we think we have been able to account for most confounding factors. Our next step is to use data from this same population to examine the risk of depression associated with hormonal contraception use”.
Source-Eurekalert