Study Finds Birth Control Pill Use Isn’t Associated With Birth Defects

Big news was just made recently when officials from Oregon announced that birth control pills will now be available to purchase over the counter in that state. Now, a more recent advancement was made when a study showed that the use of birth control pills is not associated with the appearance of birth defects.

The study's scope included over 880,000 births from Denmark. It showed that the overall rate of birth defects was consistent for women who had used the pill and those who have not. In the study, there were about 25 birth defects for every 1,000 births that occurred for both groups of women.

How Charlton and her team conducted their study was using national birth, patient and prescription registry data to see the contraceptive prescriptions of women who gave birth if ever they had them. They then observed if birth defects were present when these mothers gave birth. 

According to a report on KBPS, approximately 16 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States use birth control pills. The results of this study could significantly increase the amount of women who use birth control because it is now one less thing to be afraid of when they do decide to have a child.

Brittany Charlton is an author of the groundbreaking study and a researcher at Harvard's epidemiology department. She says that the findings of the study are highly "reassuring." The study also confirms the findings of those that came before it. There is "no overall increase in major birth defects," Charlton says. 

The study was published in the medical journal BMJ. It has also been cited in different news outlets such as TIME. Dr. Diane Horvath-Cosper says the study provides her "with a lot more convincing evidence that there's no link between oral contraceptives and birth defects."