Safety of the Pill

For the vast majority of women, the Pill is safe. That was the conclusion announced last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after an exhaustive threeyear, $200,000 study by 18 medical experts. The FDA thus confirmed what responsible doctors had been saying earlier (TIME, May 2) in an effort to put to rest the sensational press and television reports about the dangers of oral contraceptives.

The FDA's advisory committee on obstetrics and gynecology, which conducted the study, did not gloss over the harmful side effects of the Pill. The increased risk of blood-clotting disorders in the 8,500,000 U.S. women who use the Pill, it noted, was 4.4 times the normal risk for women who do not, as against the seven-to ninefold risk that has been suggested by British researchers. These disorders have proved fatal to three out of every 100,000 women using the Pill. The doctors warned, once more, that the Pill should be taken only under a doctor's supervision and never by women with circulatory ailments or persistent headaches.

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