Norgestrel and Ethynyl Estradiol

Abstract

Three hundred Mexican women married or living in consensual union, most of them quite poor or of the lower middle class, received oral contraceptive treatment with norgestrel 0.5 mg plus 0.05 mg ethynyl estradiol for 21 days each cycle. There were no pregnancies during treatment, even in cycles when 1 or several doses were omitted. The character and duration of the menstrual flow and the length of the cycle were maintained within normal limits and did not change with treatment (average period, 3.5 days; average length of cycles, 28.2 days). Spotting not preceded by omission of doses occurred in 0.4%; break-through bleeding not similarly explainable in 1%; and amenorrhea (delayed menses) unrelated to break-through bleeding in 1.2%. No malignant, peripheral vascular, or other serious disease arose during treatment. Unpleasant reactions, mainly gastric, were reported in only 2.1% of the cycles. Facial melanoderma (chloasma) occurred in 0.5% of the patients studied. The only abnormality in the 7 children born to mothers after stopping medication was enlarged testes in 1 infant.