A study, published in the Archives of Neurology, showed that over a three-year period, the risk of developing multiple sclerosis ( MS ) was reduced in women taking oral contraceptives.

In previous studies, estrogen delayed the onset and eased the course of a MS-like disease in animals, suggesting that oral contraceptives, which contain estrogen, and pregnancy and the postpartum period afterward, both states associated with profound hormonal changes, may alter the clinical course or affect the risk of developing the disease.

Álvaro Alonso, of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues compared 106 women who had a new diagnosis of multiple sclerosis between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 2000 with 1,001 matched women without MS as controls.
Individuals included in the analysis were drawn from a research database that includes medical and pharmacy records for three million Britons.

" The incidence of multiple sclerosis in oral contraceptives ( OC ) users was 40 percent lower than in nonusers," the authors report. " Women had a higher risk of developing first symptoms of multiple sclerosis in the six months following a pregnancy and a non-significant lower risk during pregnancy, compared with those with no pregnancy. … This is consistent with studies on the effect of pregnancy in patients with multiple sclerosis and the immunological changes associated with pregnancy."

" Recent oral contraceptives use and, possibly, current pregnancy are associated with a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis," the authors conclude. " On the contrary, the postpartum period confers a higher risk of multiple sclerosis onset. Our findings suggest that high levels of exogenous estrogens from oral contraceptives use and of endogenous estrogens during pregnancy may delay the first clinical attack of multiple sclerosis."

Source: American Medical Association, 2005


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