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Birth control pills have no added health risks

Women who take contraceptives can expect normal lives and are less likely to die from cancer or heart disease, a new study reveals.

Birth control pills have no added health risks

Women who take contraceptives can expect normal lives and are less likely to die from cancer or heart disease.

Past studies about the health effects of oral contraceptive pills had suggested that the oral contraceptive pills raise the risk of dying sooner, particularly in older women, especially smokers. To see if the risk of dying among women using oral contraceptives differs from those who have never used them, researchers followed 46,112 women for 39 years, resulting in 378,006 woman years of observation among never users of oral contraception and 819,175 woman years among users.

No link was found between the oral contraceptive pills and a higher long-term risk of dying sooner. The results showed that in the longer term, women who used oral contraception had a significantly lower rate of death from any cause, including heart disease and all cancers, compared with women who had never taken it. The results of the study are reassuring and suggest that long term health benefits of the contraceptive pills outweigh any risks.

But the researchers cautioned that their findings may only be true for women who taking older-style pills rather than those on more modern types of oral pills, since their study began in 1968.

While the latest data also showed a slightly higher risk in women under 45 years who are current or recent users of the pill, the researchers said the effects in younger women disappear after about 10 years and the benefits in older women outweigh the risks in younger women.

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