Birth Control And Cancer: Endometrial Cancer Risk Lowered With Contraceptive

New findings published in The Lancet Oncology reveal that women who take the contraceptive pill have a lowered risk of developing endometrial cancer for over 30 years, even if they were only on the medication for just about 3 years.

Previous studies have suggested that oral contraceptives have been linked to other types of cancer. For instance, previous research has linked a slightly higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who had never used the pill, based on a 1996 analysis of epidemiologic data from more than 50 studies worldwide. However, a recent analysis of data from the Nurses' Health Study found that the increased risk was seen among women who took a specific type of oral contraceptive called a "triphasic" pill in which the dose of hormones changed in three stages over the course of a woman's monthly cycle, according to National Cancer Institute.

Yet the new findings show that using the pill for every 5 years can decrease a woman's risk of endometrial cancer, also referred to as womb or uterine cancer.

Researchers found that about 400,000 cases of the disease were prevented in the last 40 years as women had taken the pill in just about that amount of time, with roughly 200,000 thousand of those being in the last decade.

During this study, researchers reviewed data collected in 36 studies conducted over 50 years that included 27,276 women with endometrial cancer and 115,743 women without it. Findings revealed that for every 100 women taking the pill, 1.3 women were diagnosed with endometrial cancer. However, about 2.3 out of 100 women who had not been taking the pill developed cancer. 

Researchers found that hormones in the pill helped to prevent thickening of the uterine wall, also known as endometrial hyperplasia. This abnormal or excessive thickening occurs every month in preparation for pregnancy. When pregnancy does not occur, the lining sheds--a process which is referred to as the menstrual period or menstruation. When shedding does not occur, it can increase the risk of cancerous cell growth, which is why the pill can lower this risk.

"This really helps to quantify it in a way doctors and patients can understand," Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, via Newsweek. "It's really important for a patient to realize that there are these benefits."

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