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During the past 2 decades, as hormone doses in oral contraceptives (OCs) have been lowered, Americans have, on average, gained weight. To evaluate higher body weight as a possible contributor to OC failure, investigators retrospectively examined data from control subjects who were enrolled in a study of ovarian cysts from January 1990 through June 1994. Of 755 randomly selected women who had completed in-person interviews and dietary questionnaires, 618 had used OCs. Relative risks for OC failure were calculated for each body-weight quartile, and the lowest quartile (<56.5 kg) was used as a reference group.
The highest-weight quartile (≥70.5 kg) included higher proportions of smokers, black women, and multiparous women than did the other qua…