Oral Contraceptives After Intestinal Bypass Operations
- Elof D. B. Johansson, PhD, MD
- John G. Krai, PhD, MD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
To the Editor.— The question was asked whether oral contraceptives are effective after intestinal bypass operations (235:2434,1976). The consultant did not know of any study on the subject, but wisely advocated caution in the use of the pill as a contraceptive on the assumption that the reduced absorptive capacity of the shortened bowel would impair the uptake of the estrogen and progestin used in these preparations.
We have just completed a study on seven fertile women (aged 19 to 44 years) after end-side jejunoileostomy (37 to 12.5 cm) for obesity. We measured the peak plasma norethindrone (norethisterone) and levonorgestrel (formerly known as d-norgestrel) levels during separate 24-hour oral norethindrone or levonorgestrel loads using conventional oral contraceptives. Compared to normal control patients, the bypass patients had severely reduced mean levels: for norethindrone, the levels were 5.0 vs 20.8 ng/ml; and for levonorgestrel, the levels were 1.63 vs 4.25 ng/ml.
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