Study Finds No Link Between Contraceptive Pills And Birth Defects

There has always been concern over whether babies conceived in both planned and sudden pregnancies -- where the mother has taken pills before conception and during the first few months of gestation
-- are at risk for developing birth defects.

The belief has been that these women expose their offsprings during pregnancy to the sex hormones in the pills.

It is known that exogenous sex hormones increase vitamin A levels and reduce folate levels in the mother. Theoretically, both these changes have the potential to disturb development of the embryo.

A team of Danish and American researchers examined birth records from Danish registries that were dated January 1997 to March 2011, as well as contraceptive
prescription information to evaluate women's oral contraception use before and during early pregnancy.

The team found that eight percent of women halted their use of oral contraceptives less than three months before pregnancy, while only one percent of the women used birth control pills while
pregnant.

Among the records of live births, researchers discovered that there are similar rates of birth defects for children of women who never took oral contraception and women who did.

For women who didn't take birth control pills, about 25 of 1,000 infants were born with birth defects. The same number was found in babies of women who took contraceptive pills.

Harvard's Charlton, the lead author of the study, said those who get pregnant after stopping their use of birth control pills or those who take them during pregnancy should know that the exposure will unlikely cause the baby to develop birth defects.

She added, however, that their findings cannot prove that birth control pills do not cause birth defects, but that there is no link
between the two.