Approximately 400 million women of reproductive age use hormonal contraceptives worldwide. Eventually, pregnancy sometimes occurs due to irregular use. Use in early pregnancy is found to be associated with child morbidities including cancer, the main reason for disease-related death in children. Here, we add the missing piece about in utero exposure to hormonal contraception and mortality in offspring, including assessments of prognosis in children with cancer. In utero exposure to hormonal contraception may be associated with death since we found a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.22 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.48) compared to children of mothers with previous use. The HRs were 1.22 (95% CI 0.99-1.13) for oral combined products and 2.92 (95% CI 1.21-7.04) for non-oral progestin-only products. A poorer prognosis was also found in exposed children with leukemia (3.62 (95% CI: 1.33-9.87)). If causal, hormonal contraception in pregnancy seems detrimental for offspring health and a marker of poorer prognosis in children with leukemia.
Keywords: child mortality; childhood cancer; hormonal contraception; in utero exposure; pharmacoepidemiology; prognosis.