Can the pill cause cancer?

The contraceptive pill may increase the risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer but it may also protect against womb and ovarian cancer

There are two types of contraceptive pill, the combined pill, containing oestrogen and progesterone, and the mini-pill, containing just progesterone. Because most women use the combined pill, studies about the pill and cancer have mostly been done with the combined pill so we are not quite sure whether the results would be the same for the mini-pill.

So far, research has shown that there may be a link between the combined contraceptive pill and 5 types of cancer – breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovary cancer, cancer of the womb and bowel cancer. However, whilst it is thought that the combined pill may increase the risk of breast and possibly cervical cancer, on the positive side it is thought that it may protect women from womb, ovarian and possibly bowel cancer.

It's worth noting though, that the increased risk of getting breast cancer and cervical cancer starts to diminish as soon as a person stops taking the contraceptive pill and the increased risk is completely back to normal 10 years afterwards.

It's a bit different with regard to the protection that the combined contraception pill gives to cancers of the womb, ovarian and bowel. It seems like the longer someone has been taking the combined pill the more it protects against womb cancer and with ovarian cancer, the protection seems to last for more than 15 years after having used the pill. We don't know how long the protection against bowel cancer may last but it is thought that the combined pill might lower the risk of getting bowel cancer by about 20%.

Research published in February 2017 has given us more insight into the relationship between use of the combination pill and cancer. You can read about the research findings in our News section. 

 

Page updated 30 March 2017