Contraceptive pill 'cuts womb cancer risk'

ConclusionThis review found that the longer women had taken the combined oral contraceptive pill (the pill) the greater their reduction in risk of endometrial cancer. The risk reductions were quite large – use for about 10 to 15 years halved the risk – and lasted up to 30 years after oral contraption had stopped.The protection did not seem to depend much on the dose of oestrogen in the contraceptive formulations or on personal characteristics of the women, such as how many children they had given birth to, their body mass index or whether they were menopausal.The study was large and is likely to have included most of the studies on the topic. The analysis was also reliable, creating precise risk estimates over long periods of time. These points all increase our confidence in the findings.No research is without limitations, and in this case the analysis was only as reliable as the studies included. For example, not all studies had complete and detailed information on oral contraceptive use for all women. However, if this had an effect on the result, it probably wasn’t large.The researchers say that the pill used by women in the 1960s would generally have contained much higher doses of oestrogen than those of the 1980s. Despite this, they didn’t find any differences in the risk reductions between the years. They interpreted this to mean that: "the amount of oestrogen in the lower-dose pills is still sufficient to reduce the incidence of endometrial cancer, which is...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Medication Source Type: news