Statistically significant, but slight (~25% increased risk, on average.) Still not great.
Obviously, copper IUDs are an alternative for many, though they have their downsides. One of the big uses of hormonal contraception is managing heavy periods, PMDD and other medical conditions. I had a friend who would throw up for days every time she was on her period. It went away pretty completely on birth control.
Every single girlfriend I had, I asked her to get off contraceptives because of the medical dangers and I didn't want to be responsible for any problems associated with it. Instead I took responsibility for making sure she wouldn't get pregnant. One of my girlfriends actually got mad at me because I was *too* careful about getting her pregnant, and interpreted that as me not wanting to get married to her (which since we're not together ended up being true I guess).
This doesn't work for everyone but I'm fairly responsible, and no accidental pregnancies, so it worked for everyone I was with. The same way went for my wife as well, and we have 2 kids now, with no accidentals ones. I'm going to teach my son this as well, that the responsibility is on both parties but as the man you need to control what you can control and don't leave things to chance, especially something as life changing/destroying as an accidental pregnancy.
The title is misleading. It should be:
Any type of hormonal contraceptive is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
> The researchers also note that although these findings provide evidence about the short-term associations between hormonal contraceptives and breast cancer risk, they do not provide information regarding longer-term associations, or the impact of total duration of contraceptive use on breast cancer risk, since information on a woman’s prescription record prior to joining a participating GP practice would not have been available within the CPRD database.
Hopefully soon, doctors that prescribe birth control for things unrelated to birth control will now stop doing that as that's a reasonably bad thing to do (IMHO IANAD)
After I had the kids I wanted, I got a vasectomy. It’s a painless and quick and largely reversible procedure with no side effects and offers 100% contraception. If you care about your partner and are “done,” I highly recommend it.
The headline is somewhat deceptive. This study doesn’t assess lifetime risk, just risk before age 49. Since most breast cancers are diagnosed well after age 49, it needs to be assessed in that light.
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In general any type of hormonal anything is probably dangerous. Endocrine system is incredibly complex and connected in many different, mostly unknown ways.
And contraceptives play with hormones that are central to what makes women women.
These hormones are not just limited to regulating when eggs are released from ovaries, they take part in a lot of other processes. It is absolutely not surprising then that there will be other effects of long term hormonal supplementation.
I think the best course of action would be to work on other, non-hormonal contraceptive alternatives.