Women who use contraceptive pills do not get more cancer than others, according to a new study. For some cancers, the risk even lowers.
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The contraceptive pill does not have the best reputation. It makes you fat, depressed and confuses the hormone balance, it is said again and again. Also, the risk of developing cancer, should be increased by contraception with the pill . As a new study from the UK now shows, at least the latter is questionable.
The UK study is the largest long-term observation to investigate the cancer risk of pills users ever seen. In the study, which started in 1968 and did not end until 2012, over 40, 000 pills users have been tested for decades for their susceptibility to cancer . As it turned out, there seems to be no link between taking the pill and cancer risk. The pill may even protect against certain cancers, the researchers write in the journal The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Pill can lower the risk of cancer
The combination of estrogens and progestins found in most pills appears to protect against ovarian, endometrial and possibly colon cancer . At the same time, the risk of breast and cervical cancer increases slightly. Similar conclusions were drawn by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The results of the newly published long-term study show that women who use contraceptive pills do not have to be more scared than other women with cancer . Side effects, such as an increased risk of thrombosis, persist and should always be considered when choosing the pill as a contraceptive. The contraceptive pill is also suspected of causing vitamin deficiencies.
