Association between hormonal contraceptive use and derangement of lipid profile among women attending Muhoza Health Center, Rwanda

Background: Contraception is a method used to prevent unwanted pregnancies and child spacing. Although the method is beneficial in over birth control and stabilization of population explosion, the hormonal components of used drugs have been shown to generate many sides' effects among users. Aim and Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of hormonal contraceptives (HCs) on lipid profile among women attending family planning services at Muhoza Health Center, Rwanda. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and purposive sampling was used to select study participants among HC users, although simple random sampling was used to select study participants of nonusers. A total of 88 participants were recruited and among them, 57 were HC users, while 31 were nonusers known as controls. Blood sample was collected after the consent of the participant accepting to participate in the study. Collected blood samples were analyzed to evaluate parameters of the lipid profiles, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by using Humalyzer plus at INES-Ruhengeri clinical biochemistry laboratory. Results: Findings of this study show a high risk of developing abnormal lipid profile among the exposed group compared to controls. Association was found in LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) (odds ratio [OR] = 11 > 1), TC (OR = 14 > 1) and TG (OR = 2.8 > 1). The high risk of developing abnormal lipid profile among users compared to controls was observed in LDL-C and TC. HDL-cholesterol (OR = 0.8 < 1) showed that there is no risk of developing abnormal lipid profile among users and controls. Implant (χ2 = 10, df = 3, P = 0.018397 < 0.05) was statistically significant to affect all studied lipid profile parameters while TC (χ2 = 20.88, df = 3, P = 0.000111 <0.05) was statistically significant to be affected by all HCs studied among users. Conclusion: Lipid profile is affected by HCs among users. Most of the studied lipid profile parameters were seen to be affected by HC use. HC users should be followed up as dyslipidemia could lead to different health conditions.