Patterns of contraception in UK women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus: A GP database study

Aim: To establish the patterns of contraceptive prescribing for women aged 15–49 with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) and compare them with the patterns in women without diabetes.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using a UK primary care database.Results: Nine hundred and thirty-eight women with a diagnosis of Type 1 DM were identified. A comparison group of women aged 15–49 without diabetes (n = 10 000) were randomly selected from the database. Twenty-five per cent of the women with diabetes and 32% without diabetes were prescribed a hormonal contraceptive in 1994. Women with Type 1 DM were more likely to be prescribed a combined oral contraceptive than a progestogen only pill (POP) but were 2.12 (95% CI 1.65–2.72) times more likely to be prescribed a POP than women without diabetes and were less likely to be prescribed a combined pill – odds ratio 0.53 (95% CI 0.44–0.64). The pregnancy rate in women with Type 1 DM over the age of 25 years was lower than for women without diabetes. Women under 25 years with Type 1 DM seemed more likely to record a pregnancy.Conclusions: Differences between women with Type 1 DM and those without diabetes highlight the variation in the way that GPs and patients evaluate the risks and benefits when deciding on contraception.