The Risk of Venous Thromboembolism Associated with Oral Contraceptive; the Search Is Still On

Abstract

A few years after coming to the market, the first generation of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) were linked to significant risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). This increased risk was blamed on the presence of the estrogen-like compounds in these agents. Therefore, the efforts were initiated to decrease the VTE risk of OCPs by lowering the delivered estrogen content by adding progestins such as levonorgestrel to these products, which led to production of the second generation of OCPs. Thereafter, the third generation of these agents with lower doses of progesterone-like compounds with contraceptive efficacy was released. They contain the new progestins such as Drospirenone, Norgestimate, Desogestrel and Gestodene (1-3). Â