What Is The Relationship Between Birth Control Pills And an Increased Risk of Breast Cancer?! 

What are Oral Contraceptives?

Oral contraceptives “Birth Control Pills” are pills used by women to put off unplanned pregnancies. The main ingredients of the pill are female hormones estrogen and progesterone. These hormones when ingested work in order to control the function of the uterus and ovaries by preventing the process of ovulation.

By far the most commonly prescribed type of oral contraceptive in the United States contains synthetic versions of the natural female hormones estrogen and progesterone. This type of birth control pill is often called a combined oral contraceptive. Another type of oral contraceptive, sometimes called the mini-pill, contains only progestin, which is a man-made version of progesterone.

The Need For Safe,  

Effective Oral contraceptives are shared by many women around the world. More than 10 million American women use birth control pills.

• Besides effectively stopping unwanted pregnancies, birth control pills also help control other conditions, such as acne, PMS, heavy periods, and mood swings.
• Research also has shown that birth control pills can slightly lower the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.

Effective, uncomplicated Oral contraceptives are important for many women.

But it’s also important that Oral contraceptives be safe. There are concerns that because Oral contraceptive pills use hormones to block pregnancy they may overstimulate breast cells, which can increase the risk of breast cancer.

The concern is greater if you’re at high risk for breast cancer because of:

• A strong family history of the disease.
• Past breast biopsies showing abnormal cells.
• You or someone in your family has an abnormal breast cancer gene.

If you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, you SHOULD NOT use contraceptives that use hormones. That’s because there’s evidence that these medicines might increase the risk of cancer coming back (recurrence).

A study:

The debate about Oral contraceptive pills and breast cancer isn’t new. Researchers have been looking at the issue for many years, but the results have been mixed in this article we will talk about some of them, let’s have a look:

• A study looked at whether the recent use of birth control pills is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in women ages 20 to 49.
• The results found that using high-dose estrogen birth control pills in the previous year was linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in these younger women.
• but using birth control pills with a low dose of estrogen (the type of birth control pills that many women take) WAS NOT linked to a higher risk of breast cancer.

The study was published in the Aug. 1, 2014, issue of Cancer Research. Read the abstract of “Recent Oral Contraceptive Use by Formulation and Breast Cancer Risk among Women 20 to 49 Years of Age.”

In Most Cases,

The reports only talked about birth control pills increasing risk and didn’t explain that it was only high-dose estrogen birth control pills. It’s important to know all the details of the study before you draw any conclusions.

The researchers also looked at the type of birth control pills the women were taking, including the dose of hormones and monophasic or triphasic types of pills. Instead of relying on the women remembering what type of birth control pills they took, the researchers looked at the women’s electronic pharmacy records.

Overall,

the researchers found that women who had used birth control pills within the previous year had a 50% increase in the risk of breast cancer compared to women who had never or had formerly used birth control pills. While These Results Sound Very alarming, it’s important to know three things:

“This Risk”

1. varied with the formulation of the Oral contraceptives pills: 

• High-dose estrogen Oral contraceptive pills more than doubled the risk of breast cancer.
• Ethynodiol diacetate (a type of progestin) birth control pills also more than doubled the risk of breast cancer.
• Triphasic Oral contraceptive pills with an average dose of 0.75 mg of norethindrone (a type of progestin) more than tripled the risk of breast cancer.
• Other types of birth control pills, including low-dose estrogen pills, WERE NOT linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. birth control

Only a small number of women in the study were using high-dose estrogen pills:

• 24% of the women were using low-dose estrogen pill.
• 78% were using moderate-dose estrogen pills.
• less than 1% were using high-dose estrogen pills.

2. Increase in Risk:

Relative risk tells you how much something you do, such as maintaining a healthy weight, can change your risk compared to your risk:

• If:
  • You are very overweight Relative risk can be expressed as a percentage decrease or a percentage increase.
  • Something you do or take doesn’t change your risk, then the relative risk reduction is 0% (no difference).
  • Something you do or take lowers your risk by 30% compared to someone who doesn’t take the same step, then that action reduces your relative risk by 30%.
• If something you do triples your risk, then your relative risk increases 300%. 

Any increase in relative risk needs to be multiplied by a woman’s absolute risk to figure out her real risk.  

Most experts agree that:

• An average woman younger than 50 with no family history of breast cancer and no abnormal breast cancer genes has an absolute risk of breast cancer that is less than 2%.
• So, if that risk doubled, it would still be less than 4%. birth control

3. Study Didn’t Take Into Account:

• Whether the women had any family history of breast cancer or had an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.
• This is HUGELY important and has made some other researchers question the results of the study. This is because we already know that women with a family history of breast cancer or who have an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene shouldn’t take Oral contraceptives pills.
• Since the researchers didn’t account for these factors, it’s impossible to know how much they influenced the results.

Even the study’s lead researcher, Elisabeth Beaber, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said the results require confirmation.

“Our results should be interpreted cautiously,”birth control

She said,

• “Breast cancer is rare among young women and there are numerous established health benefits associated with oral contraceptive use that must be considered.
• In addition, prior studies suggest that the increased risk associated with recent oral contraceptive use declines after stopping oral contraceptives.”
• If you’re a healthy younger woman with an average risk of breast cancer (no family history and no known abnormal breast cancer genes in your family), then taking Oral contraceptives pills is considered relatively safe for you.

Also, 

• If you would like to use birth control pills for contraception, ask your doctor about an effective low-dose estrogen pill.
• When your risk is higher for any reason, including being older, then you need to be more careful and avoid anything that could make that risk even higher, including Oral contraceptives pills.
• That’s why birth control pills aren’t recommended for women who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. If your breast cancer risk is higher than average for any reason, talk to your doctor about alternative birth control methods.
• Condoms, diaphragms, and non-hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs) such as ParaGard all may be options for you. birth control

What is known about the relationship between oral contraceptive use and cancer?

Nearly all the research on the link between oral contraceptives and cancer risk comes from observational studies, both large prospective cohort studies and population-based case–control studies. Data from observational studies cannot definitively establish that an exposure—in this case, oral contraceptives—causes (or prevents) cancer.

That is because women who take oral contraceptives may differ from those who don’t take them in ways other than their oral contraceptive use, and it is possible that these other differences—rather than oral contraceptive use—are what explains their different cancer risk.

Overall,

however, these studies have provided consistent evidence that the risks of breast and cervical cancers are increased in women who use oral contraceptives, whereas the risks of endometrial, ovarian, and colorectal cancers are reduced.

I. Breast cancer:

An analysis of data from more than 150,000 women who participated in 54 epidemiological studies showed that, overall,

• women who had ever used oral contraceptives had a slight (7%) increase in the relative risk of breast cancer compared with women who had never used oral contraceptives.
• Women who were currently using oral contraceptives had a 24% increase in risk that did not increase with the duration of use.
• Risk declined after use of oral contraceptives stopped, and no risk increase was evident by 10 years after use had stopped.

A 2010 analysis of data from the Nurses’ Health Study,

Which has been following more than 116,000 female nurses who were 24 to 43 years old when they enrolled in the study in 1989, also found that participants who used oral contraceptives had a slight increase in breast cancer risk (5, 6).

However,

• Nearly all of the increased risk was seen among women who took a specific type of oral contraceptive, a “triphasic” pill, in which the dose of hormones is changed in three stages over the course of a woman’s monthly cycle.
• An elevated risk associated with specific triphasic formulations was also reported in a nested case–control study that used electronic medical records to verify oral contraceptive use (7).

In 2017,

• A large prospective Danish study reported breast cancer risks associated with more recent formulations of oral contraceptives (8).
• Overall, women who were using or had recently stopped using oral combined hormone contraceptives had a modest (about 20%) increase in the relative risk of breast cancer compared with women who had never used oral contraceptives.
• The risk increase varied from 0% to 60%, depending on the specific type of oral combined hormone contraceptive. The risk of breast cancer also increased the longer oral contraceptives were used.

II. Cervical cancer:

• Women who have used oral contraceptives for 5 or more years have a higher risk of cervical cancer than women who have never used oral contraceptives.
• The longer a woman uses oral contraceptives, the greater the increase in her risk of cervical cancer.
• One study found a 10% increased risk for less than 5 years of use, a 60% increased risk with 5–9 years of use, and a doubling of the risk with 10 or more years of use (9).
• However, the risk of cervical cancer has been found to decline over time after women stop using oral contraceptives (10–12).

III. Endometrial cancer: 

Women who have ever used oral contraceptives have a lower risk of endometrial cancer than women who have never used oral contraceptives.

• Risk is reduced by at least 30%, with a greater risk reduction the longer oral contraceptives were used (13).
• The protective effect persists for many years after a woman stops using oral contraceptives (12, 14, 15).
• An analysis of women participating in the prospective NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study found that the risk reduction was especially pronounced in those long-time users of oral contraceptives who were smokers, obese, or exercised rarely (13).

IV. Ovarian cancer: 

• Women who have ever used oral contraceptives have a 30% to 50% lower risk of ovarian cancer.
• Than women who have never used oral contraceptives (16–18).
• This protection has been found to increase with the length of time oral contraceptives are used (13) and to continue for up to 30 years after a woman stops using oral contraceptives (17).
• A reduction in ovarian cancer risk with use of oral contraceptives is also seen among women who carry a harmful mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene (19–21).

V. Colorectal cancer: 

Oral contraceptive use is associated with 15% to 20% lower risks of colorectal cancer.

How could oral contraceptives influence cancer risk?

No matter which type of Oral contraceptives you use, ask your doctor if you have any questions about how to use it effectively.

If you find this article useful, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family, as you might help someone in need. Thanks.

Disclaimer: “Nothing in this article makes any claim to offer cures or treatment of any disease or illness. If you are sick please consult with your doctor.”

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