The Pill and Cancer

That was a mini clip i made brought to you by xtranormal.com. Welcome back to my blog. Can anyone answer the question that the lady asked in the short clip? I sure can’t. I have just recently restocked another 3 months worth of birth control pills and yet I still have no answer to this question

 

There has been so much controversy in the question of whether the consumption of birth control pills increase, decrease, or maybe even make no changes at all to the risk of cancer, in particularly breast cancer. Many research and studies have been carried out and have still been unable to confirm a precise answer to the effects of the contraceptive pill in relation to the development of breast cancers. The picture still remains far from clear for women who are currently taking the pill or for those who are considering taking the pill.

Since this is only a blog, I am not going to write you a ten page paper on the topic, it is important that you do take some extra time to look at where my sources are from. I am not here to persuade you which side to take, but for the sake of your health, you should exercise your knowledge into interpreting the information I am about to present to you. 

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/upl1/1/12981/37_2008/pill.jpg

In support to the argument that birth control pill increases the risk of breast cancer:

-In a case control study of 3,540 white women in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston by Mahler on breast cancer risk, results have shown that, “women aged 25-34 who have used oral contraceptives for one year or more are 70% more likely to develop breast cancer than are women of the same age who have not used the pill or who have used it for less than one year” (1996).

Mahler (1996) also concluded that “women in this age-group who have used the pill for 10 years or longer have a risk of breast cancer 2.5 times that of comparable nonusers.”

However, it is important to note that results from this study cannot be generalized to the population of the world as only Caucasian women were under examination in the study. 

- In the recent study, researchers at the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta tested the pill-cancer connection in a case-control study of more than 4,000 women aged 20 to 45. The results found that women who use the pill for longer than four years before having their first child appear to be three times more likely to develop breast cancer before age 45 than are those who do not use it before having their first child (Edwards, 1985).

Against the argument that birth control pill increases risk of breast cancer:

- Dr. Josh Vogel in the video quotes, “there is a very common misconception out there that many types of birth control can increase your risk of getting cancer. In fact if you look into package inserts, you will often find that. This is actually not correct especially commonly ascribed to birth control pill use, if anything the use of birth control pill will decrease of certain types of cancer including endometrial and ovarian cancer.”

-A study by the Mayo Clinic Health Centre (2007) found that “oral contraceptive use increases premenopausal breast cancer risk, especially among women who took birth control pills before having a first child. However, the review also noted that risk decreases over time, and by 10 years after discontinuation of "the pill" there's no elevation of breast cancer risk.”

Findings also showed “a significant percentage increase in breast cancer, but since the disease is rare at younger ages, the actual number of people in this group is small. For example, in the 25-to- 29-year age range, that translated to 4.7 cases of breast cancer for every 10,000 women who used oral contraceptives for a year.”

They also note “there's a very small absolute risk of developing breast cancer due to oral contraceptive use at younger ages. On the plus side, oral contraceptives are associated with reduced risk of ovarian and uterine cancers as well as improved bone mineral density.” (Mayo Clinic Health Centre, 2007)

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Although I call myself the truth blogger, I am not a scientist or a doctor. I am unable to answer with certainty the question to my blog this week. There are studies conducted for both sides of the story and both sides seem equally persuasive in their arguments. As I said, I am not here to persuade you to take a side, I am just offering you the information I have gathered so we can together learn more about birth control pills in general.

However, what I was able to extract from the various studies presented in this blog is that in certain ages and age groups, women are more at risk for breast cancer. For example, the risk for breast cancer is simply just low in women who are at a young age before 25 years old. Taking the pill at that age is unlikely to add on to the already low risk of getting breast cancer. On the contrary, in the age group of 25 to 34 years old and age group before 45 years old, the women in this age group is already at a higher risk of breast cancer than those women who are 25 years old or younger. Therefore, the consumption of birth control pills in this age group will add onto the already higher risk of breast cancer. 

Maybe this is not a one plus one type of question. Maybe there is just more than one answer to this question.

With care,

The Truth Blogger- Reminding my beautiful ladies, I do have a comment function in my blog, feel free to leave any concerns you have regarding the birth control pills and even suggest me some topics you would like me to talk about next time 

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Reference

Edwards, D.D. (1985). The pill and breast cancer. Science News, 128(19).

Ehowhealth. (User). (2009). Women’s health: what types of birth control are known to  

cause cancer? Retrived from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpL1LwsrYeM&playnext=1&list=PL1C19654E4611631A

Mahler, K. (1996). Long duration of pill use among young women shows possible link to

elevated breast cancer risk. Women’s Studies International, 28(5).

Mayo Clinic Health Centre. (2007, June). The pill/ breast cancer risk and your age.

Retrieved from http://HealthLetter.MayoClinic.com

Title: Truth, lies, and the Internet

To all my beautiful ladies who like to surf the net:

The internet is a very dangerous place to be in if you are not familiar with it. You should always examine the sources in which the information is derived from. Take a look at this site: http://www.ditchthepill.org/

If we take a look at the information under “Benefits” Turned Out to Be Wrong

This is definitely my favorite! They don't even give us the name of the doctor or where these doctors are from.

Next, the site provides us with a long list of illnesses that are caused by the pill, again with no referencing to any sources

What makes this site seem so believable is that you can continue on and click into each of these illnesses and read about how the pill is a “direct cause” of the illnesses.

Thirdly, Prempro (2010): the next point that this site uses to attack the pill. Prempro is a prescription medication that helps manage symptoms of menopause. http://www.prempro.com

As with all medication, there are possible side effects, which include an increase possibility of heart attacks, strokes, breast cancers, or blood clots.

This site describes the pill as being four times worse than Prempro again without any scientific evidence supporting this statement. It also describes Prempro as being poisonous at each given dose and could poison us up to three generations.

Oh another favorites from this site. If only this was true! This website says that PMS never existed before the pill. It says that premenstrual syndrome is a new condition that did not exist 50 years ago. This should be simple to find out. If your mom or grandma is more than 65 years old, assuming that they get their period when they were 14 or 15, just ask them whether they have experienced PMS when they had their period. If they did, maybe PMS did exist 50 years ago before the pill.

One last one ladies. These types of unreliable websites usually lead to what? Of course, advertisement of something you should purchased to rid the effects of what they are telling you not to take! In this case, the website recommends you to take Bio-Identical Progesterone for only $15 per month to minimize the side effects of the pill! And guess what?! Free Shipping on orders over $300 and special offers daily.

So, this goes to show that the Internet really isn’t the place where you should look for information if you are unable to assess what is true or false. Instead, what’s a better place to go for information than your family doctor or nearby clinic? Vancouver Coastal Health have a lot of pamphlets on health and within Van Coast Health, there’s also a youth clinic, which offers free and confidential drop in services.

Comparing to the list of illnesses that ditchthepill.org stated that are caused by the pill, in a study by Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, results concluded that “ovarian and endometrial cancer risk was reduced in women while taking birth control pills and for at least 10 years afterward” (Robb-Nicholson, 2004, p. 8).

The study also found a possible reduced risk for colon cancer. The risk for breast cancer was increased slightly. However, the Harvard researchers found that “these risks disappeared or diminished quickly when women stopped taking the pill. The benefits, on the other hand, lingered, even to the age when ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer rates began to rise” (Robb-Nicholson, 2004, p. 8).

Fertility is another major concern for women in regards to taking the pill. In ditchthepill.org comparing to the list of illnesses once again, infertility was one of the side effects of taking the pill. 

In a 2009 study by Deborah Kowal, an assistant professor in the Department of Global at Emory University in Atlanta, concluded that “women may believe that use of pills will negatively impact their future fertility. However, this is not the case; return to fertility is rapid following pill discontinuation” (p. 4).Results were derived from more than 50 studies and 50 years. 

So ladies, truth, lies, and the Internet is really up to you to decide, but for me, i try to stay away from these unreliable information as much as I can. 

Kindly from your Truth Blogger

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Reference

Kowal, D. (2011). What are the top myths about pills? Contraceptive Technology Update, 3-5.

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc. (2010). Prempro. Retrieved from http://www.prempro.com/

Robb-Nicholson, C. (2004). By the way, doctor, Harvard Women’s Health Watch, p. 8.

Vancouver Coastal Health. (2008). Birth Control Pills. The Pill. Retrieved from

      Boulevard Youth Clinic 2110 West 43^rd Ave.

Women’s Health Institute (2007). Ditch the pill.org. Empowerment for women. Retrieved

      from http://www.ditchthepill.org/