Experience with a new low dose oral contraceptive: norgestimate & ethinyl estradiol.

Experience with cyclic administration of 0.125 mg of norgestimate plus 0.035 mg of ethinyl estradiol indicates that this new combined oral contraceptive is clinically effective and well tolerated. There were no unintended pregnancies in 3,026 cycles of use among 161 women. Patient acceptability of a relatively high cycle incidence of spotting (16.7%) was remarkable; only five patients withdrew from the study because of this irregularity. Breakthrough bleeding was infrequent (0.9% of total cycles). No other side effects were reported and amenorrheic cycles were not observed. In particular there were no complaints of gastrointestinal disturbance. Weight remained unusually stable. Laboratory findings remained within normal limits over 6 months of drug use. However, serum cholesterol and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase levels declined and protein bound iodine increased significantly from pre-treatment levels.