Fig 1: Validation of proteomic analysis of serum from women taking a 9-week course of combined oral contraceptive. The fold changes in serum Fetuin-B, CBG and SHBG during the trial, as measured by ELISA and immunoassay. Box blots present the fold changes gained from the validation analyses, whereas the blue dotted lines show the fold changes from the proteomic analysis. The fetuin-B concentration increased especially during use of the combined oral contraceptive containing ethinylestradiol + dienogest (EE + DNG). One major fetuin-B outlier was removed from the EE + DNG group, which did not affect the statistical analysis. CBG and SHBG concentrations have been reported previously (Kangasniemi et al., 2022; Haverinen et al., 2022a). DNG, dienogest; EE, ethinylestradiol; EV, estradiol valerate; CBG, cortisol-binding globulin; SHBG, sex hormone-binding globulin. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.