Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0002453 (amenorrhea)
 6,245 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Oral contraceptives: Little has been known in the past about the effect of oral contraceptives on lactation, but some interesting facts were produced by Dr Siva Chinnatamby, Medical Director of the Family Planning Association of Ceylon. A study was carried out at the clinics of the Family Planning Association in Ceylon, and more than 600 women took part. They had been told that the effects of oral contraceptives on their lactation were still uncertain, but they were prepared to see what happened, as it was more important to them to avoid another pregnancy than to continue nursing. The results in 150 of these women have been analysed. Various oral contraceptives were used, but the numbers in the different groups were insufficient for comparison; the study is continuing and later a comparison can be made when sufficient numbers have been collected. Almost all the women in the trial had lactated for at least three months following their last pregnancy. All the women taking part were chosen within three months of delivery; most had had two to four previous pregnancies, belonged to a low socio-economic group, and weighed less than 100 lb. (45 kg.). Results of the study showed that in 5.3% of the women lactation ceased in the first cycle of administration; 29.7% lactated for only three cycles; 33.3% for four to six cycles; 18.3% for seven to nine cycles; and 17.3% for 10-12 cycles. Some of the women who had suppression of lactation in early cycles managed to continue partial breast feeding with supplementary feeds for some further cycles. It was found that the shorter the duration of lactation in previous pregnancies. The easier it was for the oral contraceptives to suppress lactation during the trial. It appeared from the figures obtained that there was some suppression of lactation by oral contraceptives; this seemed to vary with the dose of progesterone in the preparation: the higher the dose the greater the suppression (the dose of oestrogen in the different preparations was more or less constant). The period of postpartum amenorrhoea was definitely reduced. No side-effects, such as vaginal bleeding or breast enlargement, were found in the babies who were being breast-fed. When the women themselves were asked what effect the oral contraceptives had had on their lactation, 44% thought there was no suppressive activity, while 56% thought they would have lactated longer had they been taking oral contraceptives. IUDs: In a paper on the effect of IUDs on lactation, Dr Carlos Gomez-Rogers, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Chile, found that 76% of women using IUDs continued to lactate for more than six months. This was the highest percentage in a comparative study of women using IUDs (76%), a control group (54%), women having injections of long-acting progestogens (44%), women taking combined oral contraceptives (20%), and women on sequential therapy (8%). In this study Dr. Gomez-Rogers found that the inhibitory effects on lactation with different forms of hormonal therapy seemed to vary with the amount of oestrogen in the preparation.
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PMID:Contraceptives and lactation. 1225 1