Contraception (Mortality Data) (Hansard, 29 April 1981)

§ Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is the latest information available to him on mortality rates directly attributed to the use, as a contraceptive, of the progesterone-only pill;

(2) if he will publish in the Official Report, on the basis of the most up-to-date information, a table showing the mortality rates attributed to the use of the infra-uterine device as a contraceptive among women in the United Kingdom, other member European Economic Community

Method	age group/country type^**
	20–24	25–29	30–34	35–39
	DC	LDCA	LDCB	DC	LDCA	LDCB	DC	LDCA	LDCB	DC	LDCA	LDCB
Oral Contraceptives (without predisposing conditions)	1.2	0.8	0.8	1.2	0.8	0.8	1.9	1.3	1.3	4.0	3.0	3.0
Oral Contraceptives (with predisposing conditions^†)	1.4	1.0	1.0	1.4	1.0	1.0	11.4	6.0	6.0	28.8	13.0	13.0
Infra-uterine devices	0.5	1.0	1.5	0.5	1.0	1.5	0.8	1.5	2.3	1.0	2.0	2.0
^**DC=developed countries; LDCA=less.developed countries type A—comparable to Taiwan and Korea; LDCB=less-developed countries type B—comparable to Bangladesh.
^†Predisposing conditions—e.g. smoking, hypertension.
^*Extracted from "Population Reports", Series B, No. 3 1979, adapted from Potts et al, in risks, benefits and controversies in fertility control, Hoperstown, Maryland and Row, 1978, p 404–407.

The Department is aware of no published data on mortality associated with depo-provera or with other progesterone-only contraceptives. I understand that the Committee on Safety of Medicines has received 249 reports of suspected adverse reactions associated with these drugs, including three deaths-none of which was associated with depo-provera. The existence of these three reports does not, however, imply a causal relationship.

The Department is unable to provide estimates of the number of women treated with depo-provera either in the United Kingdom or in other countries. In the United Kingdom statistics are collected of prescriptions dispensed by retail pharmacists. Treatment prescribed and dispensed 412W countries and, for the purposes of comparison, in such other World Health Organisation nations whose figures are readily available;

(3) if he will publish in the Official Report, on the basis of the most up-to-date information, a table showing the mortality rates attributed to the use of the drug depo-provera as a contraceptive among women in the United Kingdom, other member countries of the European Economic Community and, for the purposes of comparison, in such other World Health Organisation nations whose figures are readily available;

(4) if he will publish in the Official Report, on the basis of the most up-to-date information, a table showing the mortality rates attributable to the use of the combined oestrogen-progesterone contraceptive pill among women in the United Kingdom, other member countries of the European Economic Community and, for the purposes of comparison, in such other World Health Organisation countries whose figures are readily available;

(5) what is his estimate of the number of women who have been injected with the drug depo-provera over each of the past five years in the United Kingdom, other member European Economic community countries and, as far as information is readily available, in other member countries of the World Health Organisation; and how many deaths in each case have been attributed to it.