Contraceptive pill 'may lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women'

Women who regularly use oral contraceptives may be at a lower risk of developing rheumatoidarthritis. This is according to a new study led by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and published in the British Medical Journal, which adds to the body of evidence suggesting that hormonal and reproductive factors may explain why women are generally at greater risk of developingrheumatoid arthritis than men. The study findings For this study, data was collated from the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis on 2,809 women who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 5,312 women without the disease. It was found that women who had used an oral contraceptive at any time had a lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than those who had never done so, with the risk being 15 per cent lower in current users of the pill and 13 per cent lower in past users. This association was also shown to be significant for women who tested positive for anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), a marker frequently associated with more serious cases of rheumatoid arthritis. The link remained significant even after taking account of tobacco and alcohol consumption trends. Overall, using the pill for more than seven years was associated with a 19 per cent lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, regardless of whether they tested positive or negative for ACPA. The potential significance The scale of this population-based study means that researchers were able to ...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news