Study finds smoking causes unwanted pregancies
09/26/00
New research shows that female contraceptive pills function far worse among female smokers than non-smokers, with head of the research project, Dr. Erling E. Andreasen from Kolding Hospital, stating at a world congress for medicine in Washington that fema
Referring to the results of information collected from 800 women requesting voluntary abortions, Andreasen stated that "Many of the participants in our survey had taken their contraception pills correctly, but became pregnant anyway. Further research showed that a great majority of those who became pregnant were smokers."
According to Andreasen the nicotine in tobacco breaks down the pills’ hormone content, oestrogen, thereby reducing their effectiveness. He was backed by another top specialist, Dr. Jytte Jensen from Glostrup Municipal hospital, an author of a thesis on the subject. "There is no doubt that smoking negates the effect of hormones. It comes as no surprise to me that contraceptive pills have a diminished effect on smokers."
Andreasen now intends to examine whether certain types of contraceptive pills are more unstable for smokers than others. "Most of the new types of pills have very low oestrogen content it’s my theory that precisely these pills are more vulnerable to the consequences of smoking."
Cigarettes
