Prolonged oral contraceptive use and hearing loss; cross sectional analysis in Kashmiri population

Abstract

Background: Present day women avoid unwanted pregnancy by a variety of methods, oral contraceptives being one of them. The prolonged use of these oral contraceptive pills (OCP) has substantial physical and sensory effects.Aim: To find out the alteration of hearing sensitivity following prolonged usage of OCP. Methodology: The study included 20 healthy women who used OCPS for a minimum of 6 months without any medical complications. Audiological evaluation included pure tone audiometry (PTA), Speech audiometry, and Impedance audiometry. Results: The results show from this study showed that there was no significant change in the hearing threshold following prolonged contraceptive doses. Conclusion: This cross sectional study represents a small study population and the result of no significant alteration should be taken with caution and further randomised studies are required.