What is Birth Control?
Hormonal Contraception, also known
as birth control, is a drug therapy used to prevent pregnancies in women at
childbearing age. Hormonal contraception can come in the form of pills,
patches, Intrauterine devices, shots, and injections. While birth control is
primarily used to prevent pregnancy, it may have other uses such as to regulate
periods and to help with endometriosis pain. Women
that suffer from PCOS may also take birth control
to reduce some of
the symptoms they experience and keep their monthly cycles.
What Can Happen with Prolonged Use of Birth Control?
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| https://www.womanlog.com/sex/hormonal-birth-control |
According to an article by the National Cancer Institute, “Oral Contraceptives and Cancer Risk”, women that use oral contraceptives are at a greater risk of developing cervical cancer after 5-9 years of consistent birth control pills use. The risk was doubled with 10 years or more consistent use. In a similar situation, when looking at breast cancer studies in an article titled “ Oral Contraceptive Use and Breast Cancer : A Prospective Study of Young Women”, the amount of estrogen component called levonorgestrel and ingredient formulation may account for an increased risk of developing breast cancer in comparison to other manufactured brands.
Although there have been many studies on hormonal contraception and cancer risk, it is not conclusive whether or not birth control has substantial effect on developing carcinogenic effects. All this is to say that there is much more information to consider when talking about the link of birth control to cancer. One specific type of birth control may not be ideal for a patient based on their medical history, family history, and estrogen content. The truth is scientists are still trying to learn more everyday about the cause of cancer. It is important to discuss concerns with your doctor and decide what exactly may be the most beneficial means of contraception, whether that is a low dose estrogen birth control, progesterone only option, or abstinence until further research.
By SaBrea Cowan, An Undergraduate Biology Student at the University of Kentucky
Resources
Mørch, Lina S et al. “Contemporary Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of Breast Cancer.” The New England journal of medicine 377.23 (2017): 2228–2239. Web.
While reading this blog post, I wondered if there were any traditional medicines that were able to help adjust menstrual cycles. And if they would have any side effects like cancer.
ReplyDeleteIn my brief research, there are a total of “571 ethnic medicines commonly used for women’s menstruation health in Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and America” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8854496/). These included anything from ginger to Catharanthus roseus (periwinkle). In terms of efficacy, it seems like (I just looked up PCOS) traditional medicine may be able to help (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.01192/full).
Of course, there are also some cons about prescribing traditional medicine. As it fell out of favor as westernized medicine became the status quo, we probably don’t have nearly as much knowledge about it as people once did. Additionally, people now (even in the same areas that once practiced with those particular herbs) don’t live as they do before — how can we account for these differences? We don’t have as much knowledge about the efficacy of these treatment plans in the past because what wasn’t documented is lost — and we now live longer (on average) than people once did…who’s to say how these medications will affect the age differences?
[Examples of discovered side effects of traditional medicine, particularly interesting are the contra-indications between the traditional medicine and the western medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4954321/]
I think that maybe in an attempt to alleviate the reliance we have on present day hormonal therapies (especially for those who will likely need to take these medications for life), an investigation into traditional medicines may be interesting. Maybe we could answer the questions that have us hesitating about using what our ancestors did. Or maybe, we could isolate the compound(s) that actually “make things work”.
Hormonal birth control is a very hot topic lately! I have been doing a lot of personal research about prolonged use of birth control and its effects on the brain. There has been talk about the effects of OC use starting in adolescence and how it affects the brain during critical developmental periods.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting study I found, "Use of the birth control pill affects stress reactivity and brain structure and function" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32533958/) looks into how OC use beginning in adolescence may "blunt stress reactivity" and cause "structural, functional, and behavioral differences compared to shorter OC use during adulthood." They found that certain changes related to age of OC onset and some changes were related to duration of OC use (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32533958/). Pubertal-onset OC use showed a more lacking, or blunted, stress response that may be caused by prolonged OC use through a variety of mechanisms. The researchers found that OC users had higher white matter content in the brain possibly due to interrupted synaptic pruning during puberty.
This study has limitations in terms of its design and future longitudinal studies will be able to provide further evidence to support or refute the initial hypothesis that OC use beginning during puberty can change the structure, function, and behavior of the brain as well as blunt stress response.
I think this area of research will come into play soon as many women in the 18-26 age range are starting to become more aware of adverse and long term effects of hormonal birth control. I personally have made a decision to break from hormonal birth control in an attempt to learn more about my body and my cycle and improve my overall health!
One interesting trend concerning contraceptive use is that short-acting hormonal methods are largely falling out of favor compared to longer-acting reversible and non-reversible methods. Per the Guttmacher Institute, there has been decreasing preference for pill-based hormonal contraceptives, which has been accompanied by an increase in preference for long-acting reversible contraceptive methods like IUDs and implants, as well as long-acting non-reversible methods like tubal ligations and vasectomies. That said, there has nevertheless been an increase in the number of people using pill-based hormonal contraceptives, but they represent an increasingly smaller percentage of new prescriptions.
ReplyDeleteThis could be a critical part of the story of our fight against cancers, especially hormone-responsive cancers. As is already clear, lifetime use of hormonal contraceptive pills can increase your risk of many types of cancer. Per the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), IUDs have similar perceived side effects as hormonal birth control pills, but are up to 10% more effective. Implants and injectables can also be up to 10% more effective than pills, but carry no additional increase in breast cancer risk. Supposing alternative contraceptives such as those discussed above are chosen with increasing popularity, we may be able to solve this problem without actually solving it, by simply side-stepping the issue with moves to "cleaner" options.
Guttmacher Institute: guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-method-use-united-states
ACOG: https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-advisory/articles/2018/01/hormonal-contraception-and-risk-of-breast-cancer
Firstly, I want to say that this was a very important topic, and very well blog post.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important to realize that birth control was not taken just because it decreases the likelihood of pregnancies. I like that you said that it is also treated for PCOS. WebMD laid out ten reasons why someone takes birth control, and only one was prevention of pregnancies (Johnson, 2022). I think that it is important to remember that anytime that you someone changes the hormonal control of the body, you risk the rise of cancer. However, it would be interesting that if you take birth control periodically and intermittent, I would imagine that it would even more increase your likelihood for cancer. I say this because the patient is constantly increasing, and decreasing the estrogen, and progesterone within circulation. As previously talked about, there is always a risk when one takes medication that modulates the hormonal balance, and I think those risk factors that are taken into consideration when the physician and patient have those discussions. Lastly, you brought up HPV, the CDC has reported an 81% decrease in genital warts, and cancer has decreased 40%, and it is continuing to increase ("HPV Vaccination is Safe and Effective", 2021). I am curious to see if those patients that were on birth control and went to develop HPV, had the HPV vaccine.
WebMD. (n.d.). 10 things to know about birth control if you're transgender or nonbinary. WebMD. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/ss/10-things-to-know-about-birth-control-if-transgender-nonbinary
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, July 23). HPV vaccine safety. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/parents/vaccinesafety.html#:~:text=Among%20young%20adult%20women%2C%20infections,has%20dropped%20by%2040%20percent.
Birth control is a useful medication that has several uses for women. One thing I don't understand is how people's side effects can be drastic even though they can be the exact same weight, dosage and route of administration. I haven't found any research being done specific on that topic but I feel like it'll also be useful in the future.
ReplyDeleteHey SaBrea, I thought this blog was very insightful in terms of the prevalence of birth control and the effects women face when taking contraceptions. I like how you mentioned that birth control can be used to prevent pregnancy however that is not the only reason that birth control may be used. I think it is a common misconception to believe that women who take birth control are primarily doing so to prevent unwanted pregnancies because a negative stigma can be associated based on these notions. An area of research that I have been reading about is men's birth control in a form of an applicable substance on the shoulder or an implant into a male that functions as a sperm blocker rather than the common vasectomy. In relation to the current blog, I think it is very important to take notice of the likelihood of cancer rates in males when going through clinical trails when trying to develop oral, topical, and implantable contraceptive devices in males. My final comments are that sexual education needs to be advanced in the United States during adolescent years or maybe even at a younger age so that negative stigmas and stereotypes can be eradicated. Some cultures are very against contraceptive and view women who use it in a very demeaning manner so it is important to try informing as many people as possible about the positives and negatives for contraceptives.
ReplyDeleteHi SaBrea,
ReplyDeleteThe topic that you chose for your blog post is something that is really interesting and very relevant especially in modern medicine and modern pharmacology. For something that is so commonly used and prescribed, I do not think that we know enough about it and the effects that it has on numerous health conditions. Various vascular diseases/conditions run in my family, so when it comes to taking hormonal birth control, most are not feasible and are not worth the risk to my health. I did not know this though until I met a provider that worked with me to help my specific health needs besides only giving me the option of hormonal birth control. I think that hormonal birth control is sometimes prescribed as a general band-aid instead of addressing the larger issues in women's health however I think there is a lot of research that needs to be done to both develop new birth control strategies in medicine but to also learn more about the long-term effects of birth control and the effect that they may have on other conditions such as cancer. I was doing some research and I thought that it was really interesting that of the 72 million women that are in the age-range of 15-49, 64.9% of which use contraception, 18.6% of which use oral contraceptive. That's about 4.7 million women which is a very large amount! As others has said, this is a very hot topic right now and I think for very good reason!
I really enjoyed this post and the viewpoint that you provided and thank you for bringing more awareness to it!
Sabrea,
ReplyDeleteThis was such an informative read! The topic of contraceptives is such a trending topic these days that it's wonderful that you touched on it. Over the past decades, birth control has been changing and improving in the medical field. The discussion on hormonal and non-hormonal is vital to discuss, because like you mentioned every patient's body is different and should be considered. If hormonal birth control were to be taken without taking into the patient and their health background/history, it can do more damage than good. Birth control is taken for numerous amount of reasons and I don't think "to prevent cancer" is on there. Although it said that the risk is reduced over time, what if someone decides to start a family or no longer needs the birth control (by practicing abstinence)? Does that increase their chances of obtaining cancer already? I do love how there is still studying and research going to prevent such a risk and continuing to improve contraceptives.
Lovely piece!
Hello SaBrea,
ReplyDeleteI found that birth control has been controversial recently, specifically among college aged women. I find it interesting that oral contraceptives can help reduce the risk of some cancers, I used the same resources as you and found that it reduces endometrial, ovarian, and colorectal cancer. I think it would be interesting to do research about having prior family history of one of those cancers and taking oral contraceptives. I could not find any research on that. In addition doing research with patients who already have a higher risk of getting breast cancer due to genetics. I could not find any current research and I think that it could be coming in the future due to the rise in genetic testing and holistic medicine practice.
I found that this blog was something I can relate to especially as a women who has experienced these risk factors of hormonal birth control.The amount of symptoms that come with the pill on the piece of paper you get is insane as it folds out to be almost a whole map. I was originally on the Hormonal pill when I first entered college, after about 6 months on it I started developing blood clots ,which was never mentioned to me as a possibility, and developed cysts on my ovaries . After two blood clots I was told that my hormonal birth control could have attributed to this.This experience was scary as my mother had cervical cancer. After getting blot clots your options for birth control decrease to almost two option of the mini-pill and a copper IUD which are both non-hormonal options.
ReplyDeleteThe risks of hormonal birth control for women is hardly talked about because it is seen as something private. You experience this as a woman because you even try to hide the fact you are taking the birth control from people because it is something private. It is expected that women are to be the ones on birth control even though it could potentially be harmful to our bodies. I hope that over time we can safely find other methods of birth control that have a safe outcome.
Hi, SaBrea!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate you bringing more light to one of the many issues with birth control. Even as someone who has been using birth control for almost 10 years, I didn't know of the cancer risks. It makes me worry that a large portion of the 65% of women between ages 15-49 in the United States that use contraception (CDC, 2019) are also uninformed of these cancer risks. At the same time, though, a lot of women don't have a choice. As mentioned in your article, women with PCOS have to be on birth control to maintain symptoms. Many women struggle with infertility with PCOS, so I tried to find research on fertility after getting off birth control for PCOS patients, but failed to find anything. I did find a study that said that it took a few months for women without infertility conditions to regain fertility (Vessey et.al, 1978), which could mean that women with infertility conditions could have problems regaining any fertility after discontinuing birth control use. My point of this is that it's upsetting that women who have infertility conditions are taking birth control to manage symptoms, not to manage fertility, and are risking cancer by using these contraceptives as a form of health care.
This was wonderfully written. Thank you for the enlightenment!
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, February 14). Products - data briefs - number 327 - December 2018. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db327.htm
Vessey, M. P., Wright, N. H., McPherson, K., & Wiggins, P. (1978, February 4). Fertility after stopping different methods of contraception. The BMJ. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.6108.265
Hey SaBrea,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest this blog post scared me! I have been on the for 7 years and now they're saying it's causing cancer? Sheesh women can not get a break! I love that you picked this topic though. Especially with everything that has happened with Roe v. Wade and proposed laws governing birth control. It saddens me how uneducated the public can be about women's health. In high school my periods weren't "normal" and my gynecologist at the time just said birth control was the only solution. However, last month I was diagnosed with PCOS after I went to a new gynecologist, explained my symptoms pre and post birth control, and requested to be checked. It made me so mad that I thought birth control was the only answer to my irregular periods when I was younger and that my gynecologist at the time agreed without digging any deeper into the problem. And I think that's the reason why abortion and birth control are so heavily debated now. Because people don't look deeper into the situation and because people don't educate themselves. So HUGE props to you for writing about birth control in a way that anyone can understand it. I hope more people than just our class read this so that they can better educate themselves on women's health. Women's health is taboo when really it's a very important topic that we should talk about and study openly. Thank you for writing this blog post! I really enjoyed reading it!
Hi SaBrea!
ReplyDeleteThank you for choosing such a controversial topic within the current healthcare field. Hormonal contraception is used for a host of things and not just for avoiding contraception. Having said, after reading your in-depth blog, some concerns began to rise. Furthermore, it is extremely disheartening to hear as there are a wide array of contraceptive choices. All of this information leads me to wonder if other forms of hormonal birth control are leading to the same issues. For example, I know that one very popular option is the intrauterine device (IUD). It is designed in a multitude of ways with each option dispensing a varying amount of levenoestrogen. Something that is particularly concerning about this is the fact that they are designed to stay in the body from anywhere between 3 to 7 years. To conclude, this is an overwhelming topic that needs more light shared upon it.
Hi Sabrea,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who used to take birth control, I never knew those side effects were possible! I don't believe my doctor ever told me that it had carcinogenic effects, how frightening! It is such a shame that essential medication like this has such a serious effect, yet you never hear anything about male birth control. Thank you for sharing this information, I found it an interesting read.