Freedom of Information request on the data showing the risk of the combined contraceptive pill in the over 50's (FOI 22/727)
Published 21 December 2023
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FOI 22/727
5th July 2022
Dear
Thank you for your email.
Clinical advice that women over 50 should not use combined hormonal contraceptive pills is because some conditions have an increased risk with both use of combined hormonal contraceptive pills and with increasing age.
These include risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, blood clots, obesity, and breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers which all increase with age.
For instance, blood clots are estimated to occur 1 in 10,000 women around age 40 who do not use hormonal contraceptives (known as the baseline risk) compared to about 10 in 100,000 women around age 60 (a ten-fold increase). Studies in the 1990s estimated that risk of stroke doubles every 10 years from the age of 45 onward. Risks of most female cancers also increase steeply after age of 50.
Further details on these can be found in guidance for Healthcare Professionals from the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (see FSRH guidance on contraception for women aged over 40 years).
The risks from use of combined hormonal contraceptive pills multiple with these age related risks, so the impact is more for women over 50 (higher number of women would be affected) than for younger women.
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