Today there is a new report out in the BMJ by Canadian investigators about a possible link between the pill and the increase in prostate cancer.
The researchers believe oestrogen by-products excreted in the urine of pill-users may have contaminated the food chain and drinking water. The hormone is known to feed the growth of certain cancers.
The latest investigation looked at data from 2007 for individual nations and continents worldwide to see if there was any link and they found a significant association between contraceptive pill use in the population as a whole with both the number of new cases of, and deaths from, prostate cancer. This link was irrespective of the nation’s wealth, suggesting it might not be down to better disease detection in more affluent countries that also tend to have higher rates of oral contraceptive use. And it was strongest in Europe.
I have written about this before – it makes obvious sense doesn’t it? Wouldn’t the same apply to increased levels of breast cancer in women?
Scary.
