Critics question reported heart protection from OCs.(News)

An analysis of data from the Women's Health Initiative that reportedly showed oral contraceptive use as protective against cardiovascular events later in life has been disavowed by the initiative's principal investigators and federal officials.

The study garnered headlines when it was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October 2004. It was touted by ASRM press releases as one of the highlights of the meeting and won a $1,000 prize. It was also reported in this newspaper.

But then, other Women's Health Initiative (WHI) investigators got wind of it.

The study had not been vetted with the WHI main office, as is customary.

Ross L. Prentice, Ph.D., a chief statistician of the WHI, said in a published interview that he almost spat out his cereal when he read an Associated Press account of the presentation in his local newspaper. Dr. Prentice of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, went back and performed his own, similar analysis of the data.

Dr. Prentice's analysis indicates that the report presented at ASRM was "flawed," said Barbara Alving, M.D., acting director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md., in a statement.

"There is a large and reputable body of higher scientific evidence linking current OC use to future increases in risk of stroke and heart attack, especially in older women and smokers," Dr. Alving said.