Oral contraceptive use and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

To explore the somewhat controversial relationship between oral contraceptives and pre-invasive cervical cancer, 103 cases of biopsy-confirmed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) II or CIN III were compared with 258 controls who had normal cervical cytology. Cases were slightly less likely than controls to have ever used oral contraceptives; the odds ratio, controlling for age, socioeconomic status, barrier method use, smoking history, age at first sexual intercourse, number of sex partners, current marital status, and number of Pap smears, was 0.7 (95% CI 0.3-1.6). Recency, latency, duration, and age at first oral contraceptive use were evaluated and in no instance was oral contraceptive use positively associated with CIN. This study adds to the body of knowledge that oral contraceptives are not associated with pre-invasive cervical cancer. Further, if oral contraceptive users continue to be regularly screened, their risk of developing the more invasive lesions should be very low.