According to a study from the University of Oxford, there is a slight increase in the risk of getting sick regardless of the type of hormonal contraceptive used and the method of administration, especially for women over 35 years old. The results include all hormonal contraceptives, including those composed of progestins only and those that combine estrogen and progestin
Hormonal contraceptives, including the minipill, progestin-only IUD, and contraceptives that combine estrogen and progestin, may slightly increase the risk of developing breast cancer, especially if taken after age 35. The correlation emerges from a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and published in PloS Medicine. The study speaks of a 20-30% increase in risk, regardless of the type of hormonal contraceptive used and the route of administration, but the data should be compared to the average risk of the general female population, showing a slight increase in the risk is obtained. risk. The scientists’ results are in line with what was already known about hormonal contraceptives thanks to previous studies, but the importance of the study concerns the data on progestogen-only contraceptives, the use of which has increased in recent years.
I study
Researchers from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit of the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford conducted an analysis of data from about 9,500 British women who developed breast cancer between 1996 and 2017. The data is included in a database called Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which also records contraceptive use. The participants studied were all younger than 50 years. Their medical records were compared with those of 18,000 other women in the control group, similar in age and other characteristics that may influence the likelihood of getting sick.
The results
The study found that 44% of those with breast cancer were using or had recently stopped using contraception, compared to 39% of the control group. The researchers used this data to calculate the increased risk of contraceptive use, after eliminating other confounders. With five years of using any type of contraceptive, the increase was quite small for girls aged 16-20, eight extra cases per 100,000 women, while it was higher for 35-39 year olds with 250 extra cancers per 100,000 women . The study “provides important new evidence that use of progestin-only contraceptives is associated with a slightly increased risk of breast cancer,” the researchers wrote in the study’s conclusions. A risk that appears to be “similar in magnitude to that of combined hormonal contraceptives”. According to the researchers, “because the risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, the absolute risk associated with the use of both types of oral contraceptives is estimated to be lower in women who use them when they are younger and more fertile. than women who use them in old age”.
Source: TG 24 Sky
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