Abstract

Hormonal contraception has recently drawn the attention of both national and international Health Organizations mainly because of new data on the risk of venous and arterial thrombosis. This has, fortunately, not led to a ‘pill scare’ as happened in 1996 when controversy arose with respect to the thrombotic risk of third versus second ¬generation pills. This time, evidence on the thrombotic risk of pills with the newer progestogens is gathering, ¬leading to a re-evaluation of guidelines. In this paper, we summarize this evidence and try to present a clinician’s view of the indications and contraindications of hormonal contraception and situate them in the perspective of the numerous non-contraceptive health benefits of hormonal contraception.