The long term safety of hormonal steroid contraceptives

Hormonal steroid contraceptives can never be entirely safe, but their use by young women and for a limited number of years carries risks which are generally low enough to be acceptable. The massive amount of data now available for combined oestrogen-progestagen oral contraceptives (OCs) make it possible to quantitate the risks, both for the majority of women and for those in whom the risks may be modified by specific patient factors. For oral and injectable progestagen-only preparations the risks are reasonably well documented in the short term, although not so well in the long term. For intrauterine progestagens, data are limited.