Breast secretions were obtained by nipple aspiration from 164 (44.7%) of 368 consecutive premenopausal non-pregnant women volunteers attending family planning clinics. Women currently taking oral contraceptive steroids were significantly less likely to yield breast secretions than women who had never taken such preparations. The effect was confined to parous women of whom 94% not taking oral contraceptives yielded breast secretions compared with only 51% currently using the pill and 60% of those with a previous history of use. The percentage of nulliparous women yielding breast secretions (30%) was significantly less than that in parous women and was not affected by a present or previous history of contraceptive steroid use. These results provide further evidence of the difference in hormone responsiveness of parous and nulliparous breasts and the potential of oral contraceptive steroids to influence breast function.
PIP: The effects of oral contraceptive (OC) use and parity on the ability to obtain breast secretions were investigated in 368 non pregnant, premenopausal women attending 3 family planning clinics in Edinburgh, Scotland. A nipple cup consisting of 2 concentric rings was used to aspirate breast secretions, and women were classified as secretors if at least 1 breast produced a visible bead of secretion. Record review indicated that 31 women had never used OCs, 208 were current users, and 129 had used OCs in the past (more than 3 months before the study). Secretions were aspirated in 164 (44.6%) of the 368 study subjects. There was a significant relationship between OC use and secretory patterns: the percentage of secretors was 67.7% among never-users, 35.1% among current users, and 54.3% among past users. Moreover, secretion production was twice as common among parous women (59.6%) than nulliparous women (29.7%). Combined OCs were particularly associated with a reduced occurrence of breast secretions. Overall, these findings indicate that OCs reduce the occurrence of breast secretions, but this effect is restricted to parous women. All but 1 of the parous subjects with no history of OC use produced breast secretions. Greater understanding of breast physiology and the role of breast secretions is required before the clinical significance of the effects of OC use on breast secretions can be assessed.