Oral contraceptive pill ‘can protect against certain cancers for decades’

Women taking the oral contraceptive pill may see their chances of developing certain forms of cancer drop, according to research.

The University of Aberdeen study examined data from the 46,000 women involved in the Oral Contraception Study, which was launched in 1968 to investigate the long-term health effects of oral contraceptives.

It was shown that women who had used the pill at some point were less likely to develop colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer or ovarian cancer than those who had never used the pill.

Moreover, when looking at the risk of all types of cancer in women who took the pill, it was shown that using this form of contraception during reproductive years did not produce new cancer risks later in life.

Dr Lisa Iversen, research fellow at the Institute of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, said: "These results … are reassuring; specifically, pill users don't have an overall increased risk of cancer over their lifetime, and the protective effects of some specific cancers last for at least 30 years."

Patients were followed for up to 44 years, creating more than 1.2 million woman-years of observation, making this the longest-running study of its kind in the world.

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