Read an article in a newspaper today (not today’s paper though) which said that being on the Pill was a good thing because it reduced a woman’s chance of getting ovarian cancer.
It didn’t mention that being on the Pill can increase your chance of getting breast cancer!
Can’t win, I guess!!
Jacki x
Yes, I was on a high dose pill for four years back in the 70s, and wonder whether this contributed to my bc.
Guess we’ll never know for sure.
Mcgle
I used to take the pill continuous without a break for a period ,I think this may have contributed to me getting it aged 38 after twenty years on it,continuous for about 3 years post diagnosis.
I have taken the pill in some form or another for almost 30 years. Started on a high dose pill (conova 30) whcih was then withdrawn and went onto Microgynon 30 for several years. Had eldest daughter (while I was taking the pill - so that worked then lol) - then changed to depo provera injections when I was 26. I have been on depo provera from then until december last year (dx in Nov last year). I sometimes wonder if it contributed (as you’re only supposed to stay on depo for for 5/7 years - I have been on it for 20 years with an 18th month gap (when I was 36 to have youngest daughter) - guess I’ll never know - lets face it when you read the newspapers anything could have contributed - the bacon rolls for brekkie, the type of nail varish I use, the fact that I don’t eat vegetables…and so on and so on…
Margaret x
I am 51 and my GP insisted I came off the pill Jan 2007. I’d been on Marvelon for 15 years, a combined pill, after conceiving and then miscarrying days later when on Microgynon, a progesterone-only pill. Had taken combined pills on and off since age 16 (1972) other than during 3 pregnancies, and a brief spell post-divorce when I hated dealing with ‘normal’ periods. I felt good on Marvelon, my weight was stable and only in the last 6 months on it did my blood pressure start to rise, I think more from stress with another relationship ending traumatically than from the pill. I was livid with my GP and tempted to order it over the internet from the States, but plunged into an inertia that meant I never went through with that.
Through 2007 I put on 1 1/2 stone, my periods went from 5 to 4 to 3.5 weeks, and I found a bit of a bump that I thought was a fatty cyst a little while before my first routine mammogram, that has, to cut a long story short, resulted in my planned mastectomy next week.
I asked the breast surgeon whether being on the pill so long caused it. He said probably not. I find it hard to believe.