It has been proven that naturally occurring hormones in the female body, e.g. oestrogen or progesterone, have an impact on the appearance of cancer. Scientists have drawn a simple conclusion from this fact - additional hormones taken externally cannot remain without an effect on the health of the women taking them. The relationship between the contraceptive pill and cancer was therefore put under the microscope.

What was the result of this investigation?

Breast cancer has many causes. One of them is the exposure of breast tissue to prolonged high doses of female hormones. This happens, for example, when the first menstruation occurs early or menopause starts relatively late. Getting pregnant at a later age or not having children at all also puts a woman's health at risk. However, the use of hormonal contraception has been shown to only slightly increase the risk of breast cancer.

Significantly, after 10 or more years of not using the pill, this risk is no longer different from the common statistic. It seems that the type of contraception used is also not without influence. Three-phase pills, in which the amount of hormones supplied to the body changes over the three phases of the cycle, are suspected to have the greatest impact on the risk of developing breast cancer. A more significant effect on a woman's health has been one recorded in the relationship between hormonal contraception and the cervix.

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There is a particular danger here in the case of concomitant infection with human papillomavirus (H. pyloriV) due to the fact that hormones from oral contraception can increase the susceptibility of cervical cells to infection with this virus, as well as reducing their ability to regenerate properly.