Birth Control pills as Cancer reducing agents
Dr. Steven R. GoldsteinMD is a Gynecologist in Manhattan in private practice for over 25 years. In his practice Dr Goldstein often sees to whom he may recommend birth controlpillsfornon-contraceptivereasonssuchasbenefitsintermsofbleedingcontrol, less anemia, less cyclical hormonal swings and so on.
Dr Goldstein states that it is important to know while the pill contains estrogen and progesterone, cancer-producing hormones, please note that in premenopausal women, the hormone in the pill works to suppress ovarian function and, thus, this hormone is instead of, not on top of what your body makes. So in taking birth control pills, your natural production of hormones stops and is replaced by the quantity in the pill. This is why the lowest dose pills are too low for women under 30-35 years of age.
Dr Goldstein, an obgyn Manhattan, refers to a study by Cancer Research in the UK showing the effectiveness of birth control pills when it comes to cancer reduction. First a word about dose. (Recall however, that the lowest does pills are too low for women under 30-35 years of age as described above).
This study was an observational study from the United Kingdom involving over
250,000 women ages 49-80 years of age. Using databases and national registries, they compared ovarian, uterine, and breast cancers among never-users and ever-users of birth control pills. Overall, users of birth control pills had 28% less ovarian cancer, 32% less uterine cancer, and no difference in breast cancer.
However, if the use exceeded 20 years of duration, the reduction in ovarian cancer rose to 40% less than non-users, the reduction in uterine cancer rose to 64% less than non-users and there still was no difference (statistically) in breast cancer between users and non-users.
Keep in mind, however, that for women of such an age, the likelihood was that much higher doses of hormone were utilized. Dr Goldstein, a Gynecologist in Manhattan, suspects that if such a study were conducted twenty or thirty years from now among women of similar age, the results might be even more impressive.
As an aside, in this series of over 250,000 women, the incidence of breast cancer in “ever-users” of birth control pills was 6.6% and in “never-users” it was 8.2%. Thus, this most recent and large study of effects of birth control pills on various gynecologic cancers reaffirms something Dr Goldstein has told his patients for many years. These birth control pills are cancer-reducing agents.
If you are interested in finding out if the use of birth control pills may be beneficial to your health, schedule an appointment with Dr Goldstein, an obgyn Manhattan for a consultation.