Bone mineral: effects of oral contraceptives, pregnancy, and lactation.

Estimating bone mineral by the photon absorption (125I) method applied to the distal part of the radius, it was found that young women using oral contraceptives containing a daily dose of 100 micrograms of mestranol had higher concentrations of bone mineral than non-users. Women twenty to fifty-nine years old who had lactated were among the poorly mineralized, while those who had lactated but were now using oral contraceptives in various combinations were among the highly mineralized.