[Risk-benefit analysis of contraception with steroids]

Oral hormonal contraception is a low risk and safe form of contraception for women between 15 and 35 years of age without risk factors in the history (smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterinemia). Women over 35 years should take the pill only when risk factors have been excluded previously. In general, low dose pills with less than 50 micrograms ethinylestradiol should be used, because they have the lowest impact on the metabolism. There should be an additional indication even after exclusion of risk factors, if women over 40 years take the pill. Besides that it could be shown that using the pill has many positive effects on health, as for example benign mamma tumors more seldomly occur, in most of the cases the dysmenorrhoea improves, anaemia and inflammatory adnex diseases are significantly more seldom, and it could be shown that there is a clearly protective effect concerning the morbidity of endometrium and ovarian cancer.