Table 10 Anorexic premenopausal women: positive effect of oral contraceptives on bone mineral density.

Study design	Reference	No of patients	OC exposure	Measurement of BMD/bone metabolism	Results
Cross sectional	Seeman et al72	117 women (65 with AN: 12 with 1° amenorrhoea, 16 with 2° amenorrhoea taking OCs, 37 with 2° amenorrhoea not taking OCs; 52 healthy controls)	OC users v non‐users	Lumbar spine, total body, proximal femur DXA	Higher BMD in healthy control women than in women with AN; greater mean lumbar spine BMD in women with AN taking OCs than in women with AN not taking OCs
	Karlsson et al73	366 women (77 non‐OC users with AN, 58 OC users with AN, 26 women recovered from AN; 205 healthy controls)	OC users v non‐users	Areal BMD by DXA, volumetric BMD calculated	Higher BMD in healthy control women than in women with AN; greatest reduction in BMD was in non‐OC users with AN; lesser reduction in OC users with AN; least reduction in women recovered from AN

OC, Oral contraceptive; BMD, bone mineral density; AN, anorexia nervosa; DXA, dual energy x ray absorptiometry.