Word: pills
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Comparing the contraceptive practices and health records of the groups, the researchers found that use of the Pill was twice as common among the stroke victims as it was among controls. The study also established a strong connection between the Pill and thrombotic strokes, which are caused by blood clots in the brain; use of the Pill was three times more frequent among victims of this type of stroke than among controls. A similar but somewhat weaker link was found between the Pill and hemorrhagic strokes, caused by the rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. Nearly twice...
Doctors believe that the Pill's effect on clotting accounts for the increased incidence of thrombotic strokes. Why the Pill causes hemorrhagic strokes is less certain, but some doctors suspect that estrogen, a female hormone that is a prime ingredient of oral contraceptives, may aggravate hypertension...
Still, most doctors refuse to condemn the Pill. They feel that the risk of stroke even among women who use oral contraceptives is extremely small. Britain's Dr. Martin Vessey, a leading student of Pill problems, reports that out of every million women using the Pill, only 100-one in 10,000-will suffer strokes attributable to it each year. Of these, only five will...
Even these deaths can be prevented if doctors exercise more care in prescribing the Pill. Some women who ask their doctors for the Pill are now handed prescriptions after only cursory examination. Clinic patients may be asked few, if any, questions about their medical histories before they are given supplies of oral contraceptives...
...Stanley Birnbaum, acting chief of obstetrics and gynecology at New York Hospital, believes that such laxity is more perilous than the Pill itself. Doctors should examine each patient and question her carefully before prescribing the Pill, he says. They should exercise extreme caution in giving it to anyone with a personal or family history of circulatory problems. Other doctors require Pill users to report regularly for examination to check for high blood pressure. Some even go so far as to insist that women on the Pill stop smoking. Among the stroke victims studied, 73.8% were smokers...