Modern birth control pills have side effects than past oral contraceptives even though they are lower in estrogen. Latest Danish study suggests that, alike previous pills, with long term use they still moderately increase the risk of breast cancer.
The study involved 1.8 million Danish women for more than a decade, overcomes largely held assumptions about modern contraceptives for younger generations of women. Many women have trusted that latest hormonal contraceptives are much protective than those which had higher doses of estrogen taken by their mothers or grandmothers.
The new paper predicted that for every 100,000 women, hormone contraceptive usage leads to an additional 13 breast cancer cases a year. For every 100,000 women using hormonal birth control, there are 68 cases of breast cancers compared with 55 cases a year among nonusers.
“Hormonal contraception should still be perceived as a safe and effective option for family planning,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who was not a part of the research.
“You have to balance it against potential benefits of using hormones, for example, decreasing the risk of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer or colon cancer,” CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said Wednesday on “CBS Evening News.”
“And, of course, there’s the benefit of preventing an unwanted pregnancy. I think it ultimately comes down to a discussion between the doctor, or other clinician, and the woman. It can’t be a rushed discussion. They’ve got to slowly discuss specifically what works for her.”
The study examined dissimilarities in risk between the formulations; women cannot safe guard themselves by changing them to implants or intrauterine devices that liberates a hormone directly into the uterus.
The research also advices that the hormone progestin — largely used in today’s birth control methods is increasing breast cancer risk.
“This is an important study because we had no idea how the modern day pills compared to the old-fashioned pills in terms of breast cancer risk, and we didn’t know anything about I.U.D.’s,” said Dr. Marisa Weiss, an oncologist who initiated the website breastcancer.org and was not involved in the study. “Gynecologists just assumed that a lower dose of hormone meant a lower risk of cancer. But the same elevated risk is there.”
“It’s small but it’s measurable, and if you add up all the millions of women taking the pill, it is a significant public health concern,” Dr. Weiss added.
“When we look at all comers, the absolute overall increased risk of breast was one extra case of breast cancer for every 7,690 women using hormonal contraception for one year,” said Dr. Rebecca Starck, a gynecologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the study.
“It’s really quite small — not to say it’s zero. Yes, hormonal contraception may increase your risk for breast cancer, but the absolute risk of breast cancer is small.”
Approximately 10 million American women use oral contraceptives, ivolving about 1.5 million who depend on them for reasons other than birth control.
Women with a family history of breast cancer may want to ask their doctors about other contraceptives, said Dr. Roshni Rao, a breast surgeon at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
“Oral contraceptives are like any other medication,” Rao said. “There are risks and there are benefits. If you have a reason to be taking them, it’s perfectly reasonable to do so.”