2008 Woodie Awards
Study: Pill can reduce ovarian-cancer risk
Ashton Shurson - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: Metro
A new study shows that besides helping prevent pregnancy, birth-control pills can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in women.
Released Jan. 25 by Cancer Research UK, the study shows that protection can last for more than 30 years, and the longer the pill is used, the better the safeguard. In addition, taking the pill for 15 years cuts the risk of ovarian cancer in half.
"This will raise awareness that young women who have risk factors should be on oral contraceptives," said Amina Ahmed, a obstetrics/gynocology fellow at the UI Hospitals and Clinics.
The new information confirms what similar studies have found in the past, Ahmed said.
Some area doctors say they would make extra recommendations to take the Pill if a patient had a history of ovarian cancer. Ahmed said physicians normally recommend the Pill to patients but do so especially when they have the cancer history.
Penny Dickey, the vice president of health services and education for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, said its doctors look at individual patients to find the best birth-control plan for them.
Planned Parenthood already lists "protection against cancers of the ovaries and uterus" as one of the advantages of the Pill, but Dickey said she couldn't say the agency's doctors have ever recommended oral contraceptives specifically for ovarian-cancer prevention.
Not everyone is at a high risk for the cancer, she noted, so she wouldn't always point out these results to patients.
While some doctors use these results to encourage women to take oral contraceptives, others steer away from recommendations.
Karen Kubby, the executive director of the Emma Goldman Clinic, said the clinic's philosophy is not necessarily to recommend the Pill; instead, physicians look at various factors to help a patient decide which birth-control method is best.
"We really look at that person in greater detail," Kubby said.
The study also found that prevented cases of ovarian cancers will rise to 30,000 per year over the next few decades; 100 million women worldwide take the Pill.
E-mail DI reporter Ashton Shurson at:
ashton-shurson@uiowa.edu
What the recent study found:
• Women have protection against ovarian cancer for up to 30 years after they have stopped taking the pill.
• Taking the pill for 15 years cuts the risk of ovarian cancer in half.
• The number of cases of ovarian cancer prevented will rise to 30,000 over the next couple of decades.
Released Jan. 25 by Cancer Research UK, the study shows that protection can last for more than 30 years, and the longer the pill is used, the better the safeguard. In addition, taking the pill for 15 years cuts the risk of ovarian cancer in half.
"This will raise awareness that young women who have risk factors should be on oral contraceptives," said Amina Ahmed, a obstetrics/gynocology fellow at the UI Hospitals and Clinics.
The new information confirms what similar studies have found in the past, Ahmed said.
Some area doctors say they would make extra recommendations to take the Pill if a patient had a history of ovarian cancer. Ahmed said physicians normally recommend the Pill to patients but do so especially when they have the cancer history.
Penny Dickey, the vice president of health services and education for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, said its doctors look at individual patients to find the best birth-control plan for them.
Planned Parenthood already lists "protection against cancers of the ovaries and uterus" as one of the advantages of the Pill, but Dickey said she couldn't say the agency's doctors have ever recommended oral contraceptives specifically for ovarian-cancer prevention.
Not everyone is at a high risk for the cancer, she noted, so she wouldn't always point out these results to patients.
While some doctors use these results to encourage women to take oral contraceptives, others steer away from recommendations.
Karen Kubby, the executive director of the Emma Goldman Clinic, said the clinic's philosophy is not necessarily to recommend the Pill; instead, physicians look at various factors to help a patient decide which birth-control method is best.
"We really look at that person in greater detail," Kubby said.
The study also found that prevented cases of ovarian cancers will rise to 30,000 per year over the next few decades; 100 million women worldwide take the Pill.
E-mail DI reporter Ashton Shurson at:
ashton-shurson@uiowa.edu
What the recent study found:
• Women have protection against ovarian cancer for up to 30 years after they have stopped taking the pill.
• Taking the pill for 15 years cuts the risk of ovarian cancer in half.
• The number of cases of ovarian cancer prevented will rise to 30,000 over the next couple of decades.
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