Effect of oral contraceptives on balance in women: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: To detect the effect of combined oral contraceptive pills (COC) on dynamic postural balance in healthy middle aged women. Materials and methods: A prospective randomized controlled study included 200 patients classified into two groups. Group I received COC containing 30 mu g of EE and 3 mg of drospirenone for 12 consecutive cycles and Group II received no treatment. Overall, medio-lateral and antero-posterior stability were measured using Biodex system after 12 months. Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference between the 2 study groups regarding estradiol level (12.84 +/- 1.96 vs. 38.86 +/- 3.99, P value < 0.001) and progesterone level (0.52 +/- 0.25 vs. 11.64 +/- 4.53, P value < 0.001). There was a highly statistically significant difference between the 2 study groups regarding mediolateral stability (1.84 +/- 023 vs. 2.40 +/- 0.56, P value < 0.001), antereoposterior stability (1.91 +/- 0.29 vs. 2.33 +/- 0.61, P value < 0.001) or overall stability (2.42 +/- 0.29 vs. 2.95 +/- 0.53, P value < 0.001). Conclusion: COC are effective method of contraception to improve postural balance and decrease risk of injury in normal and athletic women. (C) 2017 Taiwan Association of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.