The Association between Oral Contraceptive Use and Painful Conditions (2013)

Undergraduate: Sheila Gaynor

Faculty Advisor: Eric Bair
Department: Biostatistics

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Previous studies have identified an association between the use of hormonal contraceptives (HC) and painful conditions such as migraine headaches and temporomandibular disorders (TMD). However, the nature of this association remains unclear. This analysis sought to determine the relationship between hormonal contraceptive use and painful symptoms (particularly headaches and jaw pain) using data from the Orofacial Pain: Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment (OPPERA). OPPERA was a large-scale prospective cohort study that collected measures of severity and duration of pain in various bodily regions as well as HC use. The association between HC use and pain found significant associations with orofacial pain, with an odds ratio of 1.51 (95% CI: 1.33-1.72), and headache, with an odds ratio of 1.70
(95% CI: 1.47-1.97). The results remained essentially unchanged when excluding women with pre-existing orofacial pain or severe menstrual pain and women who had previously used HCs to treat pain.