Oral contraceptive pills can protect against ovarian and endometrial cancer – and the benefit remains decades after the final dose was taken, according to a new Swedish study.
Researchers at Uppsala University analysed records of more than 250,000 women to compare the incidence of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers between women who had used oral contraceptive pills and those who had never taken them.
One of the lead researchers, Associate Professor Åsa Johansson at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, said they found that women who had used oral contraceptive pills had a much lower risk of developing both ovarian and endometrial cancer.
“Fifteen years after discontinuing with oral contraceptives, the risk was about 50% lower,” she said. “However, a decreased risk was still detected up to 30-35 years after discontinuation.”
Oral contraceptive pills have previously been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but the researchers found a small increased risk of breast cancer among oral contraceptive users that disappeared within a few years after discontinuation.
“Our results suggest that the lifetime risk of breast cancer might not differ between ever and never users, even if there is an increased short-term risk,” added Ms Johansson.
The team says the results from the current study, which are published in the latest edition of Cancer Research, are important, because oral contraceptive use has commonly been associated with side effects such as deep vein thrombosis and breast cancer.
Karlsson T, Johansson T, Höglund T et al. Time-dependent effects of oral contraceptive use on breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers. Cancer Research 17 December 2020; doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-2476
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