all of them hormonal contraceptives conllevan a risk slightly greater than breast cancerincluding those containing only progestogen, increasingly used, according to a study published by Mars.
The researchers who carried out the study emphasized that The greatest risk of breast cancer must be weighed against the benefits of hormonal contraceptivesincluding the protection they provide against other forms of female cancer.
The increased risk of breast cancer was already well known for contraceptive methods that combine progestogen and estrogen.
But even though the use of contraceptives that only contain progestogens has been on the rise since more than a decade ago, Until now, few investigations have focused on its specific effect on the risk of breast cancer.
El nuevo estudio, published in the magazine PLOS Medicinefound that the risk of a woman developing breast cancer was approximately the same for hormonal contraceptives that had estrogen and progestogen as for those that only had progestogen.
According to this investigation, Women who use hormonal contraceptives have an increased risk of around 20% to 30% of developing breast cancerregardless of how they are used (piller, IUD, implant or injection), or the formula used (estrogen-progestogen or progestogen alone).
The hallazgos are similar to those previously published, even in a vast studio from 1996.
Bearing in mind that the probability of breast cancer increases with age, the authors of the study calculated how much excess absolute risk is associated with hormonal contraceptives.
For women who took hormonal contraceptives for a period of five years between the ages of 16 and 20, represented eight cases of breast cancer per 100,000. Between 35 and 39 years old, there were 265 cases in every 100,000, they said.
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“Nadie wants to hear that something she is taking will increase her risk of breast cancer”, says Gillian Reeves, professor at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study.
But “what we are talking about here is a very small increase in absolute risk”, subrayó during a press wheel.
And he added: “These increases in the risk of breast cancer, of course, must be seen in the context of what we know about the many benefits taking hormonal contraceptives.
“No solo in terms of birth control, bell also because we know that oral contraceptives actually offer substantial protection It has a long way to go against other female cancers, such as ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer”, he says.
The study also confirmed, like others, that the risk of breast cancer decreases in the years after a woman stops using hormonal contraceptives.
Stephen Duffy, a professor at Queen Mary University of London who did not participate in the studio, described the hallazgos as “reassuring because the effect is modest”.
The study involved data from almost 10,000 women under 50 years of age who developed breast cancer between 1996 and 2017 in the United Kingdom, whereupon the use of contraceptives that only contain progestogen is extended to the same extent as the use of the combined method.
Progestogen-only contraceptives are recommended for lactating womenwho may have a risk of cardiovascular problems or smokers over 35 years old.
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Among the “multiple factors” that explain the increase in its use, it could be that “women now take contraceptives later” in their lives, and therefore present more of these conditions naturally, as Reeves said. (I)
