The Italian authors studied 121 women with subserosal uterine myoma of at least 25 mm in size using new-generation oral contraceptives (20 micrograms of ethinylestradiol and 150 micrograms of desogestrel or 20 micrograms of ethinylestradiol and 75 micrograms of gestodene).

They found that the use of new-generation contraceptives did not significantly increase the size of the myoma, but reduced the length of menstrual bleeding by an average of 2 days, with an associated increase in haematocrit by an average of 2.5%.