Spermicide use and Down's syndrome

Abstract

A connection has been suggested between use of vaginal spermicides and the occurrence of Down's syndrome among offspring born to women who used these contraceptive agents. This hypothesis was evaluated with data from a case-control study of congenital heart disease, which included among the subjects 16 infants with Down's syndrome. The estimated ratio of the proportion of Down's syndrome births among spermicide users to the proportion in non-users was 3.6, with a 90 per cent confidence interval of 1.2 to 9.0, thus providing a tentative confirmation of the hypothesis.