The Pill

14. May 2008 by Patrick Budowski.

I have been reading more and more Oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy drugs. Seems to me there are a lot of sites that will not acknowledge the new studies that reclassified  the pill and hormone replacement therapy from “possibly carcinogenic to humans” to “carcinogenic to humans”. The reclassification concerns combined eostrogen-progestogen treatments and places the compounds used in the drugs in the same classification as tobacco and asbestos.

Now there are a ton of sites that I have visited the cover the “possibility of the pill causing breast cancer” The do not mention the new study that was released in 2006 by the World Health Organization. In fact the sites I visited seemed to be out of date.

Now I know that there are good reasons to be on the pill other then birth control, however should not each person be informed of the possible side effects? It seems that Doctors do not wish to get into this, since it would harm their business. Having not had the chance to speak with a Doctor who prescribes birth control pills or hormone replacement drugs, I do not understand why they down play the facts.

This is from the SCIENCENETDAILY

‘Pill’ causes breast cancer?
‘Measurable and statistically significant’ connection confirmed

A new study from the Mayo Clinic has concluded that there is “a measurable and statistically significant” connection between the pill and pre-menopausal breast cancer, re-enforcing the recent classification of oral contraceptives as Type 1 carcinogens.

That ruling from the International Agency for Cancer Research was supported by the report published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings this month that comes even as Breast Cancer Awareness Month is being highlighted by pink ribbons, pink soup cans and other promotional devices.

However, the study that found that the risk association was 44 percent over baseline among women who had been pregnant who took oral contraceptives prior to their first pregnancy has been, to a large degree, ignored by many media organizations.

The report, “Oral Contraceptive use as a Risk Factor for Pre-menopausal Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis,” was authored by Dr. Chris Kahlenborn of the Altoona, Pa., Hospital’s internal medicine department and others.

Kahlenborn said the results mean that, following standards of informed consent, “women must be apprised of the potential risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer prior to commencing drug use.”

Dr. Kahlenborn focused on the younger, pre-menopausal women who had been on the pill before having their first child. He found 21 of 23 studies showed a connection between the pill and cancer, something that certainly should be alarming women.

However, as Andrea Mrozek, manager of research and communications for the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, noted in an article.

“Perhaps it is because the pill has long been the darling of feminists – a veritable icon of female empowerment. In some circles, suggesting the pill might kill you is seen as tantamount to issuing a press release that women belong in the kitchen.”

Mrozek noted that Queen’s University professor Samantha King commented just a few weeks ago that people are not asking “the hard questions about whether we’re spending [breast cancer research money] in the right way.”

That’s because, she noted, incidence rates “have remained stubbornly high … a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer was one in 22 in the 1940s, but by 2004, it was one in seven.”

Now this is just from a short search about the pill and birth control. While I am not a women I think that women and men need to be informed about the risks of taking the pill, and what could happen to your family if your wife develops breast cancer. For me I want to know everything that goes in my body.

I think it’s time we all took a hard look of what we eat, drink and put in our bodies.

The pill is just the tip of the ice berg. Take a look at the ingredients in our food compared to the ingredients in food that is prepared and eaten in Italy. While I will not do all the work for you, I will tell you that there are fewer obese people in Italy then there are here in the States.

Just more food for thought.

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