Dinitrochlorobenzene sensitisation test in women on hormonal contraceptives

Cell-mediated immunity was measured in women on hormonal contraceptives using the 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (D.N.C.B.) sensitisation test. Three groups of women were studied: forty-eight women were taking oral contraceptives of combined oestrogen/progestogen (thirty-seven of them had used oral contraceptives for a year or longer); twelve women were using a sequential pill (ethinyloestradiol and megestrolacetate); and sixteen women had received intramuscular injections of medroxyprogesterone acetate. The results were compared with those of a control group of twenty-nine age-matched women not taking contraceptive steroids. In women on the combined contraceptive pill and those who had received intramuscular progesterone, mean D.N.C.B. reactivity was significantly increased. The results were even more striking in women who had used combined contraceptive pills for more than one year. These results do not accord with the previously reported decrease in cell-mediated immunity in women on hormonal contraceptives.