Health Highlights: Jan. 23, 2007

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,compiled by editors ofHealthDay:

FDA Weighs New Birth-Control Pill Standards

Modern birth-control pills, while safer than their early predecessors, often are less effective and may require new minimum standards, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

In documents posted on the FDA Web site, the agency said some modern birth-control pills have at least twice the failure rate as earlier contraceptives, most likely because they contain lower doses of hormones that prevent ovulation, theAssociated Pressreported.

The FDA has convened a panel of experts this week to decide whether new minimum standards of effectiveness are needed, the wire service reported.

Older birth-control pills carried risks of blood clots and cardiovascular problems, experts told theAP. While the newer pills are thought to be safer, some allow more than two pregnancies for every 100 women years of use, compared to pills approved in the 1960s that allowed less than one pregnancy per 100 women when taken for at least a year.

Some 11.6 million U.S. women between ages 15 and 44 use birth-control pills as contraception, theAPreported.

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French Doctors Perform New Face Transplant

The world's third partial face transplant has been performed on a man whose face was marred by severe tumors, theAssociated Pressreported Tuesday.

In a 15-hour operation, doctors at the Henri-Mondor hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil replaced the 29-year-old man's nose, mouth, chin, and part of his cheeks, the wire service said.

The man has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis, causing tumors to grow throughout his body. He's had some 30 to 40 operations over the past decade to improve the appearance of his face, theAPreported.