Three-year prospective study of carbohydrate metabolism in women using Ovulen

Twenty-eight women were tested with a standard three-hour oral glucose tolerance test before and after three years of using a combination-type oral contraceptive containing mestranol and ethynodiol diacetate (Ovulen). At the three-year test time there was a significant elevation of the patients' weights and their 1-, 2-, and 3-hour blood glucose and 2- and 3-hour plasma insulin values. Pretreatment control tests had shown no "abnormal" blood glucose curves, whereas at the three-year test 17.2% of the curves were "abnormal". Serial follow-up studies in two women after stopping the medication showed that the abnormal glucose curves reverted to their pretreatment status within 12 months.