THE “pill” has been contracepted yet again.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), has declared the most commonly prescribed oral contraceptive (OC) carcinogenic.
In a press release last July 29, the IARC classified OC’s containing combined estrogen-progestogen under Group 1, the highest classification of carcinogenicity, along with exposure to solar radiation and cadmium.
According to IARC, estrogen-progestogen OC’s can cause endometrial cancer, a type of cancer that affects the uterus. Further, the US-based cancer institute earlier cited a “significant” increased risk of breast, cervical, and liver cancers among women using OC’s.
“The higher the level of estrogen in the contraceptive, the greater the harmful side effects are manifested on the users like stroke and hypertension,” said Dr. Angelita Aguirre of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. “Breast cancer is next to lung cancer as the (most common) type of cancer that affects Filipinos; and usually the cause of breast cancer is contraceptives.”
However, despite the danger posed to at least 100 million women worldwide, the IARC did not imply any plans of pulling out estrogen-progestogen OC’s from the market. The WHO agency only advised women to be responsible for their health through regular sessions of mammograms and Pap smear tests to detect the growth of cancer cells in the body. Marie Ghiselle V. Villorente
