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Using
birth control pills slightly increases a younger woman's risk
of developing breast cancer, but more than doubles the risk
if is she is taking it after the age of 45, according to researchers.
Reporting
on a collaborative Swedish-Norwegian-French study of more
than 100,000 women, the researchers said women who used the
pill when they were very young and stopped, or used it only
until their first full-term pregnancy, had no increased risk.
But the
researchers said that for women who used the pill throughout
the almost ten-year study, the risk was 58 percent higher
than for non-pill users.
And women
still using the pill after age 45 have a 144 percent greater
risk of breast cancer than non pill users, the researchers
told the Third European Breast Cancer Conference.
"It
is clear that oral contraceptives increase a woman's risk
of developing breast cancer, particularly when they are used
in the later period of reproductive life," said Dr. Merethe
Kumle of Community Medicine in Tromso, Norway.
But Kumle
said the risk for younger women is quite low.
"We
found a slightly increased risk of breast cancer among users
of the pill, but it is important to underline that young women
using the pill are not playing hazard with their health,"
she said. "As contraception, the pill should still be
the drug of choice for young women."
Source:
Breast Cancer
Week of March 31, 2002
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