Pill ‘can protect women from some cancers for 35 years’
THE contraceptive pill can protect women against some cancers for more than 35 years after they stop taking it, a study has suggested.
In recent years there have been fears that the combined pill raises the risk of cancer, but new research by the University of Aberdeen found that for ovarian, endometrial and bowel cancer it actually has a strong preventative effect.
Although there was a slight increase in risk for breast and cervical cancer, the study, which is the longest-running research into the pill’s health risks, showed it was only a temporary rise and the danger vanished a few years after stopping contraception.
The Oral Contraception Study was established by the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1968, seven years after the pill was first introduced into Britain on the NHS. It has followed 46,000 women ever since.
It found that taking the pill for any length of time lowered the cases of bowel cancer by 19 per cent, endometrial cancer by 34 per cent and ovarian cancer by 33 per cent.
The study, reported American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology concluded: “Our results suggest that users of oral contraceptives are protected from bowel, endometrial, and ovarian cancer for many years after stopping, perhaps for more than years for bowel and ovarian cancer.”
The results mean that for every three women who would have developed ovarian or endometrial cancer, one has been protected by taking the pill. For bowel cancer around one fifth of cases were prevented through oral contraception.
“These results from the longest-running study in the world into oral contraceptive use are reassuring,” said lead author Dr Lisa Iversen.
“Because the study has been going for such a long time we are able to look at the very long-term effects, if there are any, associated with the pill.
“Specifically, pill users don’t have an overall increased risk of cancer over their lifetime and the protective effects of some cancers last at least 30 years.”
The combined contraceptive pill works by tricking the body into thinking it is pregnant by delivering a surge of two hormones – oestrogen and progesterone – which cause changes in the reproductive system to prevent conception. But oestrogen is known to feed some tumours, raising fears over the long-term risk of taking the pill.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Millions of women who use the combined oral contraceptive pill should be reassured by this comprehensive research that they are not at increased risk of cancer as a result.”