does birth control pills cause breast cancer?

Answer 1

No... please read the following.

Birth Control Pills Do Not Increase Breast Cancer Risk
New England Journal of Medicine, June 27, 2002

Background and Importance of the study: Oral contraceptives —also known as birth control pills or just "the pill"—are the second most popular method of birth control in the United States after sterilization.

Birth control pills are very effective at preventing unwanted pregnancy. Past research has also shown that the pill helps protect women against ovarian and uterine cancer. Yet many women have long feared that birth control pills pose health risks, including an increase in the risk of breast cancer.

Now a large, well-designed study provides solid evidence that birth control pills do NOT increase the risk of breast cancer. This finding is true even in women who have taken the pill for a long time and for women with a family history of breast cancer.

The study showed no increase in breast cancer risk even among women who started using the pill when they were young. This is important because large numbers of American women who took birth control pills years ago are now reaching the age when breast cancer risk increases. For these women, it is reassuring to know that having taken the pill will not add to their breast cancer risk.

Study design: The study was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Researchers interviewed more than 9,200 women between the ages of 35 and 64 who lived in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Of these women, 4,575 had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and 4,682 had not. In both groups, nearly four out of five women had used birth control pills at some point in their lives.

The women answered questions about their current and past use of birth control pills and other hormones, their own reproductive and health histories, and the health histories of their families. Researchers showed the women pictures of different birth control pill packs to help them remember which pills they had used years ago.

Results: The researchers found no increased risk of breast cancer in the vast majority of women who had used birth control pills and did not have a personal history of breast cancer. Age, race, weight, length of time on birth control pills, and type of pill used made no difference. Relative risk of breast cancer did not increase with higher estrogen doses, nor was it higher in black women, women with a family history of breast cancer, or women who used birth control pills at an early age.

There was only one group of women for whom results were not 100% conclusive. These were women between the ages of 45 and 64 who took birth control pills before or during menopause. These older women in the study had taken the pill to help with symptoms such as irregular periods, to prevent unwanted pregnancy, or to lower the risk of other conditions such as ovarian and endometrial cancer.

In that particular group, the study found evidence of a very small increase in breast cancer risk. But the risk was so small that it was not considered statistically significant, which means the finding may have been due to chance and not to the fact that the women had taken the pill. To determine whether or not the increased risk really is due to taking the pill, researchers will have to study larger numbers of women in this age group.

Take-home message: If you take birth control pills now, or used to take them, this study should reassure you that your method of birth control does not increase your risk of developing breast cancer. And if you have had breast cancer, you need not worry that taking birth control pills somehow triggered your disease.

It's important to remember, though, that we still don't know whether birth control pills are safe for women who have actually had breast cancer. Until studies are done to answer that specific question, most doctors will advise women who have had breast cancer against taking the pill. Barrier methods like spermacide along with condoms or a diaphragm are recommended instead.

Answer 2

Apparently not and I sincerely hope not but you should really talk to your doctor or ring women's aid.
I've used them since I was 16 and I'm 33 now and I think they're great and there are no warnings against it causing cancer of any sort on the instruction leaflet.
Hope this helps.