Taking the Pill could increase your risk of breast cancer ‘MORE than experts first feared’
TAKING the Pill could increase your risk of breast cancer more than experts first thought, a study has found.
New research on how birth control pills affect the level of hormones in women's blood has found women who take the contraceptive have much higher hormone levels than those who don't.
Evidence suggests the risk of breast cancer increases with exposure to hormones, according to experts at the University of Michigan in America.
Scientists from the university examined seven of the most common birth control pills to determine their potential link to breast cancer.
They discovered four types more than quadrupled the levels of progestin in the blood - a synthetic version of the female sex hormone, progesterone.
Another pill cause a 40 per cent spike in exposure to ethinyl estradiol, a synthetic version of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
Progesterone and oestrogen are both produced by the ovaries and their levels vary naturally over the course of a woman's menstrual cycle.
The Pill works by replacing these hormones with synthetic versions to stop ovulation during the menstrual cycle, therefore preventing a woman from becoming pregnant.
Lead author Beverly Strassmann, a human evolutionary biologist, said it is important to understand if synthetic versions of hormones increase a woman's risk of breast cancer.
She said: "That this hasn't been answered is amazing, given that we already know that there's a correlation between hormonal exposure and breast cancer risk.
"Not enough has changed over the generations of these drugs, and given how many people take hormonal birth control worldwide—millions—the pharmaceutical industry shouldn't rest on its laurels."
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Strassmann and her team looked at research from 12 different studies that measured the amount of oestrogen and progesterone in women who were not taking the Pill.
They then compared it to levels of synthetic hormones found in women who were taking the Pill.
Strassmann has previously researched the menstruation and reproductive biology of the Dogon women of West Africa, who rarely practice birth control and have an average of nine pregnancies.
She discovered they only have an average of 100 periods during their lifetime, compared to an average of 400 periods for western women.
She said: "The increased number of menses is associated with increased hormonal exposure and risk for breast cancer.
"It is critically important to know whether hormonal contraception further exacerbates this risk."
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