Blood pressure stability in a normotensive population during intake of a monophasic oral contraceptive containing 20 μg ethinylestradiol and 75 g gestodene

Objectives Evaluation of the impact of a monophasic gestodene-based oral contraceptive on blood pressure in a population that was normotensive at baseline. Methods Data on blood pressure were retrospectively analyzed from four large prospective clinical phase III trials with an oral contraceptive containing 20 μg ethinylestradiol and 75 μg gestodene. A total of 1342 young fertile women were evaluated after 12 treatment cycles. Results The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure did not change during treatment. Approximately 89% of women were normotensive at baseline and 93% at the end of the treatment period. Only a few women (≤ 1%) were hypertensive at baseline; an increase in this prevalence was not found after 12 cycles of oral contraceptive use. The number of women who experienced a blood pressure increase was almost identical to the number who experienced a decrease. Approximately 90% of women had either a negligible blood pressure change of maximal ± 10 mmHg or a decrease. Conclusions The findings of this retrospective analysis confirm that monophasic gestodene has a negligible effect on blood pressure in users who were normotensive before treatment began.