Over a three-year period, the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) was reduced in women taking oral contraceptives, according to a study in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.In previous studies, estrogen delayed the onset and eased the course of a MS-like disease in animals, suggesting that oral contraceptives, which contain estrogen, and pregnancy and the postpartum period afterward, both states associated with profound hormonal changes, may alter the clinical course or affect the risk of developing the disease, according to background information in the article. Álvaro Alonso, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues compared 106 women who had a new diagnosis of MS between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 2000 with 1,001 matched women without MS as controls. Individuals included in the analysis were drawn from a research database that includes medical and pharmacy records for three million Britons.
