Maternal Hormonal Contraception, CNS Tumors Not Linked in Children

TUESDAY, Jan. 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Maternal hormonal contraception use is not associated with central nervous system (CNS) tumors among children, according to a Danish study published in the Jan. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Marie Hargreave, Ph.D., from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen, and colleagues examined the association between maternal hormonal contraception use and CNS tumors in children (younger than 20 years) in a nationwide cohort study involving 1,185,063 children born in Denmark from Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 31, 2014.

The researchers found that 725 children were diagnosed with a CNS tumor after 15,335,990 person-years of follow-up (mean age at diagnosis, 7 years; 47.2 percent female). The adjusted incidence rate of CNS tumors was 5.0, 4.5, and 5.3 per 100,000 person-years for children born to mothers with recent hormonal contraception use, with previous use, and with no use, respectively. The corresponding hazard ratios were 0.95 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.74 to 1.23) for recent use and 0.86 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.72 to 1.02) for previous use compared with no use. Compared with no use, there were no significant associations seen for recent or previous use of oral combined, nonoral combined, oral progestin-only, or nonoral products.

“No statistically significant association was found between maternal use of any type of hormonal contraception and CNS tumors in the children. In agreement with the study findings, four case-control studies found no association between maternal use of oral hormonal contraceptives and childhood CNS tumors,” the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to Novo Nordisk.

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