Birth Control & Cancer: Which Methods Raise, Lower Risk

By Kelli MillerIf you're a woman of childbearing years who wants to delay pregnancy, you might have heard that some birth control methods are linked to cancer. Spend a minute online and you'll probably find more than a handful of contradicting reports saying some types cause cancer, while others fend it off. How do you know what to believe?"This is a perplexing issue for many women," says Mia Gaudet, Strategic Director of Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research at the American Cancer Society. For example, "there is consistent evidence that oral contraceptives (birth control pills) increase a woman's risk of breast and cervical cancer but decrease the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer."Here is a quick look at some popular birth control options and what we know today about their links to common cancers.Increased Risk: Breast CancerIf you take or have taken birth control pills in the recent past, you are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than women who've never used them. Researchers aren't sure if the link is due to the estrogen or progesterone. Some research hints it might be caused by high-dose estrogen, but women in studies who took the progesterone-only shot Depo-Provera have also been found to have higher rates of breast cancer."It is just not really clear," says Gaudet. "But interestingly, the increased risk goes away after you've been off the oral contraceptive for 10 or more years."Things that might lower your risk...
Source: American Cancer Society :: News and Features - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Cancer Risks/Causes Source Type: news