Contraceptive choice and prevalence of cervical dysplasia and carcinoma in situ.

Whether use of oral contraceptives is associated with subsequent development of cervical neoplasia is an important public health question. Before evaluating this issue, we must determine if choosing oral contraceptives identifies a woman who is intrinsically at high risk of developing cervical neoplasia. We have examined the demographic and reproductive characteristics as well as cervical premalignant changes manifest by 15- to 44-year-old black women who enrolled in a public family-planning clinic. When compared to IUD acceptors, oral contraceptive acceptors did not have a disproportionately large number of women with traits which predicted for high risk of developing cervical neoplasia. Oral contraceptive acceptors, compared to IUD acceptors, did not have a higher prevalence rate of carcinoma in situ. Oral contraceptive acceptors with no Pap smears prior to initial choice of contraceptive method did have a 1.4-fold higher prevalence rate of cervical dysplasia than IUD acceptors. These results suggest that the deicision to use oral contraceptives, per se, does not identify a group of women at higher risk to develop cervical carcinoma in situ. Such a decision may, however, identify a group with a small increased propensity for developing cervical dysplasia.