Figure 1:

Time trends in the use of various combined oral contraceptives (COCs). In total, 5.0% of women in the study cohort used second-generation agents (4.1% norgestrel and 0.9% levonorgestrel), 73.4% used third-generation agents (22.7% desogestrel, 41.6% gestodene and 9.1% norgestimate), 3.6% used the low-dose gestodene-containing agent, 17.1% used a drospirenone-containing COC, and 0.9% used a COC containing chlormadinone acetate. All but one of the contraceptive agents contained 20–30 μg ethinylestradiol as the estrogenic component; the norgestimate-containing COC contained 35 μg ethinylestradiol.