Health aNd Fitness Guide

Birth control pills provide long-term protection against ovarian cancer, and the benefits continue even 30 years after the pill is discontinued. The study published in Lancet says that so far the pill has prevented 200,000 women from developing the disease and 100,000 ovarian cancer deaths worldwide. The researchers, led by Valerie Beral from the University of Oxford, evaluated 45 studies on ovarian cancer in 21 countries. It found that the longer the women took the pill, the lower their risk of developing ovarian cancer. Women who were on the pill for 15 years reduced their risk by half. The study shows that the benefits of the pill outweigh risks, which are minimal and last only while the women are on the pill; since its introduction in the 1960s, contraceptive pills have courted controversies with studies clashing on its benefits and risks. There is no preventive screening for ovarian cancer, which is often diagnosed very late.