- Oral contraceptives increase the risk of stroke compared to a non-user by about twofold, maybe a little bit less, and it kind of almost depends on the dose of estrogen and the type of progestin. And if those women are healthy, I don't see any reason why they can't take oral contraceptives. But I do think that if a woman is a smoker, that she probably shouldn't be taking oral contraceptives and have some other form of contraception. And so that's really kind of the primary take-home from my perspective.