Pharmacokinetics of Oral Levonorgestrel in Women After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery and in BMI-Matched Controls

Women are advised to primarily use non-oral contraceptive alternatives after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass since it is not known if the surgery affects the pharmacokinetics of oral contraceptives.

This is a multi-center, open label, phase 2 pharmacokinetic study performed at the University Hospital of Linköping and the Clinical Trials Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Danderyd Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Fifteen women aged 18-40 years who had previously undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery and reached a BMI < 30 were included. Fifteen BMI-matched women with no previous history of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery served as a control group. After administration of a single dose of a combined oral contraceptive containing 0.03 mg ethinylestradiol/0.15 mg levonorgestrel, serum levonorgestrel concentrations were determined during a 24-h period using ultra performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. The area under the plasma concentration time curve of levonorgestrel (AUC_0-24h) was the main outcome measure.

There were no significant differences in the studied pharmacokinetic parameters, AUC_0-24h, total AUC, peak serum concentration (C_max), time to peak serum concentrations (T_max), apparent oral clearances of levonorgestrel (CL_oral), or terminal half-lives (t½) between the groups.

This is to our knowledge the first study to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of oral levonorgestrel in women with a BMI < 30 at least 1 year after RYGB compared with a BMI-matched group of women. We could not find any significant pharmacokinetic differences between the groups, suggesting that oral levonorgestrel may be used in non-obese women after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass once a stable body weight has been reached.

EudraCT 2014-004677-17.