Comparison of Substances in Combined Oral Contraceptives Used in Acne Vulgaris, Hirsutism, Migraine, and Dysmenorrhea

22 February 2026 : Review article

Patrycja Wójcikiewicz

^{ABCDEF 1*}, Gabriela Durlej

^{BCDEF 1}, Małgorzata Satora

^{BCDEF 1}, Rafał Tarkowski

^{AE 2}, Krzysztof Kułak

^{AEFG 2}

DOI: 10.12659/MSM.949520

Med Sci Monit 2026; 32:e949520

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Introduction Acne Vulgaris Hirsutism Migraine Dysmenorrhea Conclusions References

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Table 3 Summary of studies describing the effect of hormones from different combined oral contraceptive pills on a migraine.

Study	Year of study	Research group	Substance and a dose	Main findings
De Leo et al []¹⁴	2011	60 women with menstrual migraine without aura aged 20–35	20 μgEE 3 mg DRSP	The 24/4 COC regimen is recommended as the preferred treatment for patients suffering from pure menstrual migraine without aura
Vitali-Silva et al []¹⁶	2023	486 women with migraine, 205 used COC, 89 used a progestin-only method, and 192 participants did not use any form of hormonal contraception.	15, 20, 30, 35 or 40 μg EE	COC reduced the chances of women with migraine getting allodynia
DSG – desogestrel; EE – ethinylestradiol; COC – combined oral contraceptive; LNG – levonorgestrel; DRSP – drospirenone.

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