Contraception and surgery

Overview

The authors outline recommendations for the preoperative care of women who use contraceptive methods, based on guidelines from specialist medical societies and the medical literature.

In women using a combined hormonal contraceptive pill, it is recommended that they stop taking it at least 3 weeks before the operation and replace it with another method (e.g. pills with Progesterone activity). If this is not possible, the patient should be given low dose heparin before surgery. This recommendation is not valid for operations shorter than 30 minutes. In women using gestagen or intrauterine contraception, no measures are necessary. In women using natural or barrier methods of contraception, it is necessary to determine whether or not the patient could be pregnant (at least by asking after the last menstruation). An accidental finding of an ovarian cyst during an operation in woman using gestagen contraception is not an indication for its operative removal.

Key words:
contraception in preoperative period