Benefits and risks of hormonal contraception : has the attitude changed? : the proceedings of an internat. symposium, Amsterdam, 19th March, 1982

A. A. Haspe/s It is with pleasure that I welcome you, on behalf of Professor Rolland and myself, to Amsterdam for this International Symposium on 'Benefits and Risks of Hormonal Contraception'. As a means offamily planning the pill is about 25 years old - a timespan which has been characterized by an enormous increase in public interest and concern with family health and family-planning. Undoubtedly we have learned a lot over the last 25 years. As you see in Figure 1, in the seventies in Holland relatively more fertile women used the pill than in any other country in the world. In 1974 new combination pills were introduced containing less than 50 JAg of ethinyl estradiol. In 1981 50 % of Dutch pill­ users took a sub-50 (Figure 2). The same is true for the Scandi­ navian countries. In our own University Clinic 95 % of pill-users take a sub-50 pill; only 5 % use a 50 JAg pill on medical indication. This decrease in estrogen dosage, which is usually accompanied by a decrease of progestational component as well, has resulted in a decrease of thromboembolic disease. Factors that are still important to consider are diabetes mellitus, hypertension, adipositas and smoking. Good selection of patients together with the prescribing where possible of sub-50 pills may result in the numbers of compli­ cations and side-effects being close to those encountered in the control group. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What does it take to develop a new contraceptive?....Pages 3-14 Influence of mass media on the attitude towards oral contraceptives....Pages 15-22 Absence of correlation between oral contraceptive usage and ischemic heart disease....Pages 23-31 Australian experiences with hormonal contraception over two decades....Pages 32-38 Front Matter....Pages 41-41 Clinical performance of a triphasic administration of ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel in comparison with the 30 + 150μg fixed-dose regime....Pages 43-55 Effects of switching from higher-dose oral contraceptives to a triphasic preparation (Triquilar R )....Pages 56-60 Clinical experience with triphasic oral contraceptives (Trigynon R ) in six hundred cycles....Pages 61-77 Acceptability of low-dose oral contraceptives: results of a randomized Swedish multicenter study comparing a triphasic (Trionetta R ) and a fixed-dose combination (Neovletta R )....Pages 78-90 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 Lipoproteins and the estrogenicity of oral contraceptives....Pages 95-103 Effects of a triphasic and a biphasic oral contraceptive on various hemostatic parameters....Pages 104-114 Comparative investigation of oral contraceptives using randomized, prospective protocols....Pages 115-130 Front Matter....Pages 133-133 Vaginal, cervical and endometrial changes during the triphasic pill....Pages 135-142 Sensitivity changes of the pituitary during administration of a triphasic oral contraceptive....Pages 143-155 Influence of hormonal contraception on the maturation process of the hypothalamo-pituitary- ovarian axis....Pages 156-167 Back Matter....Pages 170-192