|
A study of a large number of woman on the contraceptive pill shows that overall, women who took the pill tended to be less likely to die prematurely - with a notable exception being those women who also smoke, who have 40 times the risk of death from lung cancer compared to women who don't. The Pill has had a bad rap which doesn't seem to be merited. Researchers in the 60s started following over 17,000 women to see what happened to those on the Pill in the long term. The latest findings have been released looking at those who'd died. There was no raised risk of death from breast cancer but with cervical cancer there was a seven-fold increase, possibly because of less condom use. Cancers of the uterus and ovary fell. Heart disease and stroke deaths were not significantly raised unless the women smoked. The chances of dying of a heart attack were more than quadrupled at 15 cigarettes or more a day and doubled at between one and 14 per day. Lung cancer risk, by the way, went up 40-fold! Overall, women who took the pill tended to be less likely to die prematurely than those who hadn't, allowing for their general wellbeing. The dose of oestrogen tended to be higher than today's formulations but that could mean today's Pills are even safer. The main message is that women should think twice about combining smoking and the pill, and it's the cigarettes that should go.
|
