Pill 'stopped 100,000 UK deaths'

[Anarcho-Socialist]

Source: BBC News

At least 100,000 deaths from ovarian cancer have been prevented in the UK by the contraceptive pill over 50 years, research has concluded.

The Oxford University team said the pill's rising popularity meant 30,000 new cases will soon be avoided each year, the Lancet reported.

(snip)

The link between oral contraceptives and lower rates of ovarian cancer is long-established, but the study is one of the most detailed attempts to work out how effective it is across a woman's lifetime.

Even though the dose of hormones in the 1960s and 1970s pill was roughly double the amount in today's versions, this did not seem to make a difference to the level of protection offered, the researchers said. And they said protection against cancer can continue decades after a woman has stopped taking the pill.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7207812.stm

[TwilightGardener]

1. Makes sense--stop the monthly rupture of the egg out of the follicle and

then the resulting tissue repair (which means rapid cell division and a chance for mutations), and you're basically preventing the main way a cancer could originate in the ovaries.

[Quantess]

2. The pill is not for every woman.

Some shouldn't take BC pills because of risk of stroke, for example. The ones who get increased migraine headaches while taking the pill are particularly at risk for a stroke.