The effect of hormonal contraceptives on platelet count of women in Sokoto State North Western Nigeria

1 Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Science, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. *Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected] It has been figured that sometime this fall, the world’s population will reach 7 billion people. Experts now forecast that by 2050, the population could be 10 billion. The need to control the increasing world population has triggered the implementation of policy to make family planning including the use of hormonal contraceptives much more widely available in the developing world. Forty three women on hormonal contraceptive for three months and above duration constituted the subjects for this case-control study. Twenty agematched women who were not on any contraceptives were monitored as controls. The mean age and range of the subjects and was 28 ± 1.76 years and 18-45 years respectively. EDTA anticoagulated blood samples were collected from subjects and control participants and analysed using the SWELAB 3-part-differential haematology analyzer (Medonic, Sweden) for platelet count. Although the mean platelet count was marginally higher among subjects on hormonal contraceptives compared to controls, this difference however was not statistically significant (t = 190.0, p = 0.851). The mean and standard deviation of platelet count was 300.50 ± 63.60; 258.00 ± 94.10; 247.60 ± 61.20 and 244.00 ± 49.90 respectively among the age groups 20 – 24; 25 – 29; 30 – 34 and 35 – 40 years respectively. We observed a negative correlation between age of HCs users and platelet count (r=-0.56, p=0.03). The mean platelet count was significantly lower among long-term (>1 year) hormonal contraceptives users compared to short-term users (297.50 ± 56.40 versus 268.10 ± 89.00, p=0.05). This study indicates that early introduction of third generation hormonal contraception can produce an initial increase in the platelet count and that long-term use of hormonal contraceptives is associated with a reduction in platelets count.