October was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we should have been talking about how birth control drugs can double, or triple a woman's risk of developing breast cancer if she is over 40 and has been on a pill, worn a patch or had an injection for five, 10 or 20 years or more.
During your recent physical exam, did your doctor or nurse practitioner mention the risk of taking birth control pills if you are over 40?
Probably not.
When your breast biopsy came back positive, did the oncology staff tell you to stop taking your contraceptive drugs? Of course, they did; too bad the horse was already out of the barn.
Fact No. 1: In June 2005, the World Health Organization classified estrogen-progestin combination drugs used in birth control and hormone replacement drugs as Group 1 carcinogens, not only for breast, but also for cervical and liver cancers. This is the highest classification of carcinogenicity, used only "when there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans." Risky business.
Fact No. 2: Those inserts or printed sheets found in birth control refills are where pharmaceutical companies are supposed to list documented adverse reactions to the birth control drug. But most of these inserts include only outdated and incorrect information when it comes to risks of breast cancer.
For example, in its Junel Fe, Junel 21 Day and Kariva inserts, Barr Labs lists oral contraceptive research from 1963 to 1986 instead of more recently published studies. In the Ocella insert, Bayer Labs does not cite a single research study to back up the statements it makes regarding oral contraceptives and known breast cancer risks.
With one in seven American women now being diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, this industry-wide misinformation practice is outrageous.
Fact No. 3: Contraceptive drugs are a $4 billion a year market in the United States. This is a monthly bonanza for Big Pharma. But profits should start to take a hit as more and more mid-life women or their partners choose to substitute IUDs, tubal ligations or vasectomies for birth control drugs. No wonder Barr and Bayer and others continue to hide current information on contraceptive drugs from their customers.
For younger women, contraceptive drugs are considered an excellent form of birth control, with limited known breast cancer risks. The downside to these drugs, as with most other things in life, however, happens as we grow older.
The downside is called HER2 positive breast cancer and triple negative breast cancer, two types of advanced cancerous tumors that are fast growing and rarely found by a mammogram. Instead, women will tell you that they found their estrogen negative tumors themselves or a partner first discovered a tumor's existence.
"Current use of contraceptive drugs has been associated with an increase in breast cancer originating in the lobular tissue, as well as with the ER negative (HER2 positive and triple negative) breast cancers" is how the Breast Cancer Fund's "State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment, 2008" summarizes the most recent research on this subject.
Fact No. 4: Hormone replacement therapy sales of Premarin and Prempo dropped by 60 percent in 2002, when the National Women's Health Initiative showed that HRT drugs increased a woman's risk of developing breast cancer by 26 percent. Twenty million women stopped filling their prescriptions overnight and estrogen positive cancer rates permanently dropped by 15 percent among these older women.
Informed women are not stupid. When the recent research linking increased breast cancer in older women who still use birth control drugs goes mainstream, millions of women over 40 will drop these drugs like hot potatoes.
Fact No. 5: To read about recent research linking birth control drugs and breast cancer discussed here, download a free copy of "State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment: 2008." This 127-page document, written in easy-to-understand language and listing all of the research data discussed, is produced by the nonprofit, noncommercial and independent Breast Cancer Fund. You can also request a free hard copy at www.breastcancerfund.org.
Susan Wadia-Ells, PhD, a longtime wellness advocate, with graduate degrees in political economy and women's studies, is founding director of the national nonprofit organization, Know Breast Cancer, www.knowbreastcancer.net. She also writes the blog www.thetruthaboutbreastcancer.com and lives in Manchester. She welcomes comments at susan@knowbreastcancer.net
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