Study: Pill Raises Cervical Cancer Risk

But Risk Is Slight, Disappears After Decade And Pill Reduces Other Cancer Threats

(AP)  Women taking the birth control pill have a slightly higher risk of cervical cancer, but that risk disappears a decade after they stop taking it, scientists say.

International researchers reported Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet that women who took the pill for at least five years had nearly double the cervical cancer risk of women who had never taken the pill.

But that risk is small and outweighed by the fact that the pill reduces the threat of other forms of cancer, The Lancet report said.

In developed countries, women up to the age of 50 who have never used oral contraceptives have a 3.8 in 1,000 risk of developing cervical cancer. That rises slightly to 4 in 1,000 for women who use the pill for at least five years, and 4.5 in 1,000 for those who use it for a decade.

In developing countries, taking oral contraceptives raises the risk of cervical cancer from 7.3 in 1,000 to 8.3 in 1,000.

"The bottom line is that this is a very small risk," said Dr. Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecological cancer at the American Cancer Society. Saslow was not linked to the study.

Cervical cancer cases typically affect women in their 30s - when many may be on the pill.

Previous research has linked the pill to cervical cancer, but the Lancet study appears to show for the first time that this connection is temporary. Ten years after women stop taking oral contraceptives, their risk for cervical cancer is virtually the same as that for women who never took them.

The research was led by Dr. Jane Green of Cancer Research UK's epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford.

Green and colleagues examined data from 24 studies worldwide, including 16,573 women with cervical cancer and 35,509 without it. The study was funded by the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and Cancer Research UK.

Experts are not sure why oral contraceptives - which contain estrogen and progestagen - might increase the cervical cancer risk. The contraceptives also are thought to raise the chance of breast cancer, which may be triggered in part by hormone imbalances.

But those same hormones can protect against other cancers such as ovarian and womb. And unlike cervical and breast cancer, there is no way to screen for ovarian or womb cancer.

"The small increases in risk for cervical and breast cancers are outweighed by reduced risks for ovarian and womb cancer," Green said in a statement.

Doctors said that as long as women are routinely screened for cervical cancer, the increased odds that come with the birth control pill should not cause concern. If detected early, cervical cancer is potentially curable.

"Fear of cervical cancer should not be a reason to avoid use of oral contraception," wrote Peter Sasieni of Queen Mary University of London, in an accompanying commentary in The Lancet.

[nativewoman]

So the title to this article would have been more accurate if it said something like:

Study Shows The Pill Protects Against Some Cancers That Currently Have No Reliable Screening Techniques
(Including Womb and Ovarian Cancers)

[blazercoach1]

hdinsight,

We agree that if it is taken properly, it certainly CAN do the things you state. But just like we''d prefer to see full disclosure from the FDA, the toy manufacturers, Halliburton, etc......we shouldn''t give the medical community a free pass because they might happen to make our lives more "convenient" in the short term.

I''m all for allowing people to make their own choices in terms of contraception....regardless of my personal opinion. But I feel that those choices should be fully informed and discussion of the potential risks and rewards should be transparent, accurate, and thorough.

[hdinsight]

blazercoach1 -- I understand your skepticism. I do believe the pharmaceutical industry is a crafty group of blood--sucking leaches, hell-bent on curing us all of infirmities that we never even knew we had. Yet, birth control pills properly taken DO effectively prevent pregnancy. Also, the pill DOES help reduce the amount of blood flow & the painful cramping that can occur with each monthly cycle. For many women, the benefits of taking the pill will far outweigh the extremely low cervical cancer risk.

[blazercoach1]

afmca, you are almost right...but then let your own biases get in the way.

I teach AP Statistics. Here''s the problem. Read the title, then the subtitle, then the first sentence. The perpective changes EACH TIME. First the pill raises the risk, then the risk goes away, then it only goes away AFTER YOU STOP TAKING IT....so in fact, the pill still DOES cause a risk.

They mention that the RISE in cancer risk is small. But when they talk about the decline in risk for ovarian and womb....they don''t say whether it''s large or small...or give us numbers to allow us to decide for ourselves.

Let''s take a look at that rise from 3.8 to 4.5 in every 1000 women. The US population is 300 million. Let''s say 100 million are adult women of child bearing age who this industry would LOVE to sell their products to. .7(the increase) out of 1000 is the same as 70,000 out of 100 million. Women, you figure out for yourselves if you''d like a chance to be one of the potential 70,000 new cases of cervical cancer. All it will cost you for this wonderful chance is 10 years of payments to the medical industry and a life schedule based around when to take a pill!

Folks....this is an industry. Of COURSE they''re going to tell you that the reward of purchasing their products outweighs the risks. And besides...even if you DO contract a cancer caused by the pill, don''t worry....they have another procedure to sell you to cure that, too.

[afmca]

What a stupid and icorrect title for an article. The second part in smaller type conveyed more useful information. The stupidity and need for sound bites instead of knowledge is why American news organizations are held in such contempt. The religious wackos will now use the headline to attempt to limit women''s access to birth control. They have already proven they make up tyheir science on the fly so not supplying the whole story is typical. I am very disappointed in CBS for taking a worthwhile medical story and by needing to create controversy leads off with a misleading title.