GUEST EDITORIAL

Does the risk of unplanned
pregnancy outweigh
the risk of VTE from
hormonal contraception?

Let’s improve contraceptive effectiveness in this country by putting the risk of thromboembolism in perspective. Here’s a chance to educate our patients (and ourselves) and further individualize care.

Dr. Gunter is an ObGyn in San Francisco. She is the author of The Preemie Primer: A Complete Guide for Parents of Premature Babies—from Birth through the Toddler Years and Beyond (Da Capo Press, 2010). Dr. Gunter blogs at http://www.drjengunter.com, and you can find her on Twitter at @DrJenGunter. Dr. Gunter is an OBG Management Contributing Editor.

Dr. Gunter reports no financial relationships relevant to this article.

It is well established that combined hormonal contraception increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), both deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).¹ Concerns exist that drospirenone-containing combined oral contraceptives (OCs), the norelgestromin patch, and the etonogestrel vaginal ring may increase the risk of VTE, compared with second-generation OCs, although results from studies evaluating the thromboembolic risk of these products are conflicting.^1,2