Response from women to adverse publicity about oral contraceptives.

: The response of the oral contraceptive (OC) clients of a general practice in Leicester, England to the publication of 2 1983 articles reporting on the adverse effects of OCs was assessed for the 6-week period following publication. During this period, 223 women representing 24% of the practice's OC patients, inquired about the risks associated with OCs. 43 of these patients made phone inquires. They were advised to make an appointment with their physicians when their currnt prescription expired. The remaining 180 patients inquired in person. 48 of the women came to the office for the sole purpose of inquiring about the risk, 91 inquired during the course of routinely scheduled OC checkups, and 34 inquired during consultations unrelated to OC usage. The other 7 women used OCs in the past and came to the clinic to inquire about the possible risks associated with previous use. The prescriptions of 67 of the 180 women were changed to low dose OCs. Only 1 patient decided to discontinue using OCs. Despite the emphasis in the articles on the risks associated with OC use for women 25 years of age or less, the proportion of inquiries (63%) from women 25 in this age group was similar to the proportion of women (62%) in that age category in the practice's OC user population. Among patients who inquired in person, 37% received blood pressure checks 32% received blood pressure and breast checks, and 31% were not examined. About 1/3 were advised to have a cervical smear examination. The response to the article was moderate in comparison to the response which followed the 1969 adverse report on OCs by the Committee on Safety of Medicines. As a result of that report, many women stopped taking OCs, and the abortion rate increased markedly the following year. The mild response observed in this study may have been due to the more effective handling of inquiries on the part of physicians, less sensational reporting of the findings, or, perphaps, users become immune to repeated reporting of adverse effects.