Oxford study: All forms of hormonal contraception raise breast cancer risk

Hormonal Birth Control - Getty Images (LiveAction.org)

By Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN - Posted at Live Action:

A recently released study from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom found that all forms of hormonal contraception raise breast cancer risk by 20-30%. This includes progestin-only contraceptives such as the mini-pill, levonorgestrel-IUD, implanted rod, and the Depo-provera arm injection.

While progestin-only (also known as progestogen-only) contraception has been touted as “safer” than the Pill due to its lack of synthetic estrogen — the culprit behind the increased risks of heart attack, blood clots, and stroke in Pill users — the results of this new study call into question rather than reinforce that label. This latest research is particularly timely given that progestin-only contraception is becoming increasingly popular worldwide as of late, as statistics from the United Kingdom show.

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