Experts from the University of South Australia found the oral contraceptive pill slashes the risk of developing the disease by 26%.
Today, Tuesday 4th February, marks World Cancer Day – a nationwide event led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) – and what better way to celebrating than by looking into new research that shows women who take the contraceptive pill are less likely to suffer with ovarian cancer.
To conduct the research, which was published yesterday in the International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer, experts used AI to analyse risk factors associated with ovarian cancer – the fourth most common cancer case in women.
In total, 221,732 women were involved in the study and were aged between 37 and 73.
The findings show the risk of developing the cancer in women who had been taking ‘the pill’ after the age of 45 was reduced by 43%. What’s more, experts also outlined that women who had given birth to two or more children had a 39% lower risk of developing the disease than those who have never had kids.
The research can be described as nothing short of exceptional because current figures show just one in three UK women live for more than 10 years when they have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Going forward, researchers have claimed they hope their work can support early diagnosis of the disease and therefore improve the likelihood of survival.
‘Ovarian cancer is notoriously diagnosed at a late stage, with about 70% of cases only identified when they are significantly advanced,’ Dr Amanda Lumsden, lead researcher of the project said. ‘Late detection contributes to a survival rate of less than 30% over five years, in comparison to more than 90% for ovarian cancers that are caught early. That’s why it’s so important to identify risk factors.
‘In this research, we found that women who had used the oral contraceptive pill had a lower risk of ovarian cancer. And those who had last used the Pill in their mid-40s, had an even lower level of risk. This poses the question as to whether interventions that reduce the number of ovulations could be used as a potential target for prevention strategies for ovarian cancer.’
Alongside providing positive findings, the work also works to debunk the misconception that the contraceptive pill causes cancer. Cancer Research UK has claimed the combined pill – which contains both oestrogen and progesterone – can lower the risk of ovarian cancer, even after people stop taking it.
The symptoms of ovarian cancer, according to the NHS, include:
- Bloating or a swollen tummy
- Pain or tenderness in the tummy or pelvis
- No appetite for feeling full quickly
- An urgent need to pee or needing to pee more often than usual
- Indigestion
- Constipation or diarrhoea
- Back pain
- Extreme fatigue
- Losing weight without trying
- Bleeding after experiencing the menopause
If you or anyone who know is experiencing any of these, you should book an appointment with your GP as soon as possible.
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