This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 am and is filed under Women's Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
BREAST CANCER AND THE PILL
One of the more frequent concerns about the oral contraceptive pill (after the rumour that it makes you fat), is that it gives you breast cancer. Unfortunately, sweeping statements like that are difficult to make. There is (and probably always will be) controversy about this issue.
There have been many studies, involving hundreds of thousands of women all over the world, looking at whether the pill is linked to breast cancer. The suggestion that it might be probably arose out of what we know about breast tissue being sensitive to oestrogen and progesterone (the hormones in the pill). We know that some forms of breast cancer have what are called oestrogen receptors, which infers that oestrogen may stimulate that particular tumour.
The studies have individually come out saying ‘there is no association between breast cancer and the pill’, and ‘yes, there is’, and ‘maybe’. The studies we tend to hear about in the media are the ones which show a correlation.
Researchers have now had a look at all the studies which have been done, and have analyzed them. It seems that the vast majority of the studies showed no correlation between the pill and breast cancer. A couple of studies said there could be (they are the ones we heard about).
An interesting observation of one large analytical study suggested that if there was any increased risk of breast cancer, it would be in the younger age group (under 45). There seemed possibly to be a protective effect against breast cancer in the older age groups in women who had used the pill. As the majority of breast cancers occur in older women (77 per cent occur in women over 45 years of age), the overall effect of the pill may be at least neutral for breast cancer, and possibly even protective against it.
There may be cases for avoiding the pill for fear of breast cancer. For instance if a woman has already had a breast cancer diagnosed and treated, most doctors would not suggest she have extra oestrogen in the form of the pill, or hormone replacement therapy if she is menopausal. It is also suggested that women with a very strong family history of breast cancer should also avoid the pill. These women are already at an increased risk of developing the disease, but the effect of added oestrogen is not known, so it is usually not prescribed just in case. However, the particular circumstances of women differ, and these decisions can be examined on an individual basis.
We are constantly making choices about what risks we are prepared to take, for what benefits we may gain. Each person should have the opportunity to make a decision based on accurate information. Unfortunately it is difficult sometimes to work out what is accurate, when we hear so many conflicting views.
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