Birth Control Pill Side Effects Include Breast Cancer Risk?
A new study has revealed that women who recently used a brand of birth control pill with high-dose estrogen are prone to increased risk for breast cancer, according to the Business-Standard.
The results of the study suggest that the use of contemporary oral contraceptives in the past year was associated with an increased breast cancer risk relative to never or former oral contraceptive use, and that the risk of this side effect may vary by oral contraceptive formulation, according to Elisabeth F. Beaber, PhD, a staff scientist in the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
Beaber reportedly stated that the results required confirmation and should be interpreted carefully and that breast cancer was a rare side affect among young women using birth control.
Despite the study's relation between breast cancer and birth control pills, not everyone in the medial community thinks that the results are of huge concern, according to the New York Daily News.
"There's nothing of interest in this article," stated Dr. David A. Grimes, a clinical professor in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UNC School of Medicine in Wilmington, North Carolina, regarding the new study. Grimes was reportedly not involved in the new research.
The high estrogen pills that were found to increase the risk of breast cancer the most are not often prescribed, according to Dr. Jame Abraham, the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the Cleveland Clinic, who was also not involved in the study.
"The practical application of this study is limited," stated Abraham.
It is important to note, according to Grimes, that the results of the new study shouldn't keep women from using birth control pills as a contraceptive method.
"The best studies, done by the Centers for Disease Control and funded by the National Institutes of Health, have consistently found no association between oral contraceptives and breast cancer," stated Grimes.
