Contraception after heart surgery

This study represents the different methods of contraception used by women having cardiac surgery at Ain Shams University Hospital. The study comprised of 250 women having had mitral commissurotomy, 77 women having had valve replacement including one case of triple valve repair and 3 women having had cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease. An IUCD was used by 170 women (51.5%), vaginal tablets by 4 women (1.2%), oral contraceptive pills by 7 women (2.1%), "safe period" by 7 women (2.1%), tubal ligation was performed in 10 women (3%). The husbands of 33 women (10%) used condoms, and 99 women (30%) did not use contraceptive methods. The IUCD was tolerable and was associated with bleeding in 60 women (35.2%) and leucorrhoea in 55 (32.3%). The IUCD was removed from only one woman due to severe bleeding. Three pregnancies occurred with condom users in two women who had had mitral commissurotomy and one having had valve replacement. There was no case of bacterial endocarditis in the study group.