Women who use modern forms of the combined pill are at a lower risk of developing ovarian cancer than women who don’t take hormonal contraception, research suggests.
The study backs up previous findings for older forms of the combined pill – an oral contraceptive that contains artificial versions of both oestrogen and progesterone. Modern forms of the pill contain different doses of synthetic oestrogen and different types of progestins, and are sometimes taken continuously.
“[For] women who are currently of reproductive age who are using contemporary hormonal products, this [study’s] findings are reassuring because it is continuing to show a reduced risk of ovarian cancer associated with combined oral contraceptives,” said Dr Lisa Iversen, first author of the research, although she admits the study does not prove cause and effect.
Writing in the BMJ, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Copenhagen, describe how they used a Danish database which brings together nation-wide information on individuals’ dispensed hormonal contraceptive prescriptions with other data, including their cancer records.
After removing cases where women had cancer or infertility before records began, the team were left with data for more than 1.8 million women who were aged 15-49 between 1995 and the end of 2014.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
