Birth Control Pill??

Question

Do birth control pills really increase you chance of breast cancer? My mom was diagnosed with Brest Cancer a couple years ago, I've heard that the pill increases you chance? I don't want to double my chances of getting it. Anyone know any FACTS about any type of birth control?

I'm not asking about birth control so I can have unprotected sex all the time and not worry about pregnancy, I'm asking because birth control regulates your periods. Just wanted to make that clear.

Answer 1

I've actually heard that taking birth control pills decreases your chance of getting breast cancer, but I've heard that it increase your chance of getting cervical cancer by like 67%.

I found this article about woman who took birth control pills before 1975. It's pretty interesting. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/13/your.health/

I've been on the pill for 5 years now. I have had cervical cancer but luckily not breast cancer. Talk to your doctor about it, they probably have a better understanding about it and better info.

Good luck!

Answer 2

In specific with breat cancer, yes. There is evidence that due to the high hormonal levels produced by birth control pills, you have an increase chance of developing breast cancer throughout your life. Risk increases with the years you have been on the pill. The evidence so far is the increased risk is quite small, but we are yet to see statistics in the future.

However, using the pill reduces the chances of developing cervical and uterus cancer.

This contradiction is due to the nature of the tumors develop on different organ sites.

Answer 3

Oral contraceptives are believed to increase the chance of breast cancer slightly *while you are taking them* (risk appears to go away after you stop). If you are young, this means that your chance of getting breast cancer is going from a very small number to a slightly larger, but still very small number. For most OCP users, this shouldn't be a big deal. The patient I would be worried about would be the 35+ year old with a significant family history of breast cancer. I don't think I would want to give her birth control pills.

Answer 4

I'm not sure about the pill and breast cancer but I know the pill can cause blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks.

The Depo Provera shot can cause cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancer.

All Birth Control has side effects and possible blood clots and cancers that you MAY get. Nothing is ever written is stone...it's all just Possibilities.

Hence why I think a condom is better. Or just not having sex at all.

Answer 5

Birth control pills increase cancer risks (Press Release 1/26/99)
Misleading Claims by an Industry-Sponsored Study on the Safety of the Pill

CHICAGO, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The following was released today by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois School of Public Health:

A January 1999 study, funded by major international pharmaceutical companies, claims that oral contraceptives pose no risks of breast cancer or other ill effects. While the study was alleged to be the largest ever conducted, it was both small scale and insensitive. The study was based on 23,000 healthy women who had "never used" the pill since 1968 and who were subsequently followed up over a 25 year period. The average age of women at termination of the study was only 49, an age when breast cancer is relatively uncommon. Not surprisingly, the authors admitted that the number of breast and other cancers was so small that "further data is needed to confirm our findings".

In contrast, a 1996 large scale international collaborative analysis of some 54 epidemiological studies, based on over 53,000 women with breast cancer and published in The Lancet in1996, demonstrated that use of the pill starting in adolescence increased risks of breast cancer by 60 percent. These risks are clearly underestimates as reflected by the authors 'recognition that "there is little information about use that ceased more than 20 years ago", a latency much too short to preclude further major increases in breast cancer rates. Reliance on studies based on such short latencies would have exculpated the carcinogenicity of asbestos, besides the majority of other recognized human carcinogens. Other better designed and well controlled studies have reported much higher risks of breast cancer for women starting use of the pill in their teens or early twenties, especially with use before a full term pregnancy and subsequent prolonged use, and among women with a family history of breast cancer.

Moreover, the claim that the current low-dose synthetic ethinyl estradiol pill is much safer than the high-dose mestranol pill used in the 1960's and 1970's is misleading as the former is more potent than the latter, besides being some 40-fold more potent than natural estradiol; additionally, ethinyl estradiol, unlike mestranol, binds to estrogen receptors in the breast. Furthermore, the modern pill is used for much longer periods, often from menarche to menopause, than was the case with the earlier high-dose pills. It should further be emphasized that no studies have yet been conducted on the high potency modern pills and none are reportedly in progress. This is in striking contrast to the intensive investigation by Federal regulatory and health agencies on the endocrine-disruptive effects of estrogenic pesticides and other industrial contaminants whose potency is some 1/500,000th that of ethinyl estradiol.

Of related interest, it should be noted that the incidence of estrogen-dependent breast cancers, particularly among post-menopausal women, has increased by 130 per cent from the mid 70's in sharp contrast to only a 27 per cent increase in non-estrogen dependent cancers. This may well be relevant to the risks of the pill as a major source of incremental estrogen exposure.

Clearly, unqualified claims on the safety of the current pill reflect interests of the pharmaceutical industry rather than scientifically well-based concerns on women's health.

Answer 6

Women who use the Pill have higher risk of heart attack and stroke, but the effects of The Pill and breast cancer are still unknown. The Pill does lower a woman's chance of developing ovarian cancer, endometrail cancer and pelvic inflamamatory disease.

Answer 7

Some birthcontrol pills are very very concentrated, and hit the body with toooooooooons of hormones, it's not 100 proven that BCP cause cancer, obviously it's a medication and after a long period of use the body reacts to it. If you want to use them consult ur dr. I've come to the conclusion that "Yasmin" have very low impact on the body. In personal expirience, use them for a couple of months, then rest for 1, then re-take them. Also after long periods of use the body becomes immune to them, there for baby can b on the way. As I said, consult a good dr. for a good opinion.

Answer 8

No, the pill is not cancer causing. It's just a common misconception. In all reality, it reduces a woman's chances of cancer in incidents of ovarian cancer and even uterine cancer. Though it does not impact breast cancer.

Answer 9

Birth control pills do minimally increase your risk of developing some types of cancer, but if you are concerned it is best if you discuss this with your doctor.

Answer 10

Every meathod is different. Go to your doctor and discuss it with them. Breast Cancer plagues my family, but I'm still on it. Some meathods have less of a chance than others, but side effects are in everything.

Even the pesticides used in america's farm land causes breast cancer. Bet you didn't know that!