Reply #105: Ok, but...

[huskerlaw]

First of all, if we were debating a new blood pressure medicines, I'd be making the same points. We should never accept that just because the FDA says it's ok that it's perfectly fine to take it. Especially when, as in this case, it's an issue of convenience. I mean, look at how it's being marketed. It's not about birth control at all...women can take the regular pill for that. It's about being "free" of your period. The cost-benefit analysis on risk factors changes greatly (for me anyway) when we're talking about a pill that would be taken for convenience vs. one that would be taken to save my life or to keep me from getting pregnant.

As for the risk factors, there are studies that suggest that the hormones in the pill increase a woman's risk for (possibly) breast cancer, and also cervical cancer. It's about the hormones, so why doesn't it make sense to think that if a woman is taking those hormones for an additional week every month, thereby taking more hormones overall, that the risk of complications from the use of hormones would be similarly increased? Seems pretty logical to me.