A recent study found progestogen-only contraceptives have a similar risk of breast cancer as combined hormone options, NBC News reported March 21.
The study, published in PLOS Medicine, analyzed prescription records from women under age 50 in the U.K. Nearly 9,500 were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1996 and 2017, while 18,000 were not. Combined with findings from 12 other studies, the results suggested the increased relative risk of developing breast cancer, 20 percent to 30 percent, is similar across all hormonal contraceptives.
"I really don't want women to be seeing this and thinking, 'Oh, no, I've got to come off the progestogen-only pill,'" Gillian Reeves, PhD, co-author of the study and professor at the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford in England, told NBC. "There is this increased risk whatever you use in terms of hormonal contraceptives. These newer types that hadn't been so well studied, what it does look like is that they are certainly no worse."