Researchers  studied rates of the disease in countries around the world in 2007, and cross-referenced those numbers with data on contraceptive use in the same year.

Unlike all other methods of contraception, use of the pill “was significantly associated” with prostate cancer incidence in countries worldwide. Researchers found “a strong correlation” between birth control use and prostate cancer.

“Prostate cancer mortality was also associated with oral contraceptive use when examined globally,” says the study, which was published Monday in the BMJ Open journal. “The correlation to oral contraceptive use was independent of GDP as a measure of a country’s wealth, and strongest in Europe.”

Although the study doesn’t determine exactly why the link between the two seemingly unrelated health issues exists, the authors do have a few theories.

A “plausible” explanation is the birth control pill’s potential impact on the environment. Modern birth control pills can act as endocrine-disturbing compounds — chemicals that have the potential to alter the normal functioning of the body’s system of hormone-secreting glands — because they often contain high doses of ethinyloestradiol, a type of estrogen, that is excreted in urine in its original potency.

“This can then end up either in the drinking water supply or passed up the food chain,” the study says. “Oral contraceptives were made publicly available in the 1960s, and have been widely used since the 1980s, hence the exposure to these substances, even in small quantities, may be chronic enough (20-30 years) to have a clinically significant effect.”

The study authors say more research is needed to examine this phenomenon further.

Sources:

http://www.torontosun.com/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

http://www.vancouversun.com/

I was on the Depo shot for a year. In the beginning, I was happy with it. Other than some spotting, I really didn’t have any significant side effects. After my second shot, however, I started having a LOT of problems. I didn’t initially think it was related to the shot since I had already been on it for 3 months. At that point, my sex drive completely disappeared. Not only was I not interested, but it was painful. I started having difficulty sleeping. I was getting serious hot flashes and numbness in my hands and feet. My joints hurt. I got extremely depressed. I started getting dizzy spells and I was forgetting things. My memory got so bad that I could be watching tv, and when the commercials came on, I couldn’t even remember what I was watching. I thought I was losing my mind.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/asu-hib103111.php

Researchers tested 72 women who were either naturally cycling or on the pill. Every woman in the study viewed either a brief, narrated story containing “emotionally arousing” elements or one containing only “neutral” elements.

The emotionally arousing narrative told the story of a woman, her son, and a car accident, wherein the car hits the boy and critically injures him. In the emotionally neutral narrative, the car merely hits a curb. Both stories were accompanied by 11 photographs depicting the woman, her son, and the accident (although the 11 photographs were the same across both stories.)

A week later, the tested women were administered a surprise free recall test. The researchers found that women on the pill experienced enhanced memory of the overall events of the story — or what the researchers refer to as the “gist” of the narrative — compared to neutral story conditions. (That is to say the women could accurately recall the main steps in the traumatic event — that the boy had been hit by a runaway car and taken to a nearby hospital, for example.)

On the other hand, naturally cycling women demonstrated what the researchers describe as “enhanced memory of story details” (that there had been a fire hydrant next to the crashed car, or that the hospital had been light brown in color, for example), but not of overall events.

http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/News/2011/09/Birth-Control-Pills-Affect-Memory/

The study of nearly three million women taking ethinyl estradiol combined with one of seven progestins between 1997 and 2009 found a small, but statistically significant risk of having gallstones for drospirenone (adjusted RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.16–1.26), Mahyar Etminan, PharmD, MSc, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues reported.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/GeneralOBGYN/26030

Scientists have long known that oral contraceptives, which contain the female hormones estrogen and progestogen, increase the likelihood of deep vein thrombosis of the leg and pulmonary embolism, but new studies in Denmark and the Netherlands determined that some pills are safer than others. Neither study received funding from any companies that make oral contraceptives.

Pills containing a second-generation progestogen — levonorgestrel or norgestrel — and a low dose of estrogen are safest, they concluded.

The overall risk of venous thromboembolism is low, perhaps three for 10,000 woman-years for women in general, said Dr. Ojvind Lidegaard, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, and lead author of one of two reports in the Aug. 14 online issue of BMJ. But older contraceptive pills double or triple that risk, and the newest generation of oral contraceptives increase the risk fourfold or fivefold, he said.

A first message from the studies is that “the risk when you are taking an oral contraceptive depends on both the estrogen dose and the progestogen dose, and the lower the dose, the less risk,” Lidegaard said.

Both studies found that the risk decreases with the length of time a woman takes a combination pill, and that progestogen-only pills and the use of hormone-releasing intrauterine devices are not associated with an increased risk.

The Dutch study, which compared 1,524 women under the age of 50 who had deep venous thromboembolisms with 1,760 women with no such history, found a fivefold increased risk in oral contraceptive users. The risk of an event was highest in the first three months of use and lowest with pills containing levonorgestrel.

Pills with equal doses of estrogen that contained the progestogen desogestrel had double the risk of the pills using levonorgestrel, the researchers found.

The Danish study of all women aged 15 to 49 from 1995 to 2005 found roughly the same association.

Women taking oral contraceptives had a fivefold increased risk of blood clots compared with nonusers, and the risk differed by the type of progestin. “The newer types of oral contraceptives containing drospirenone or cyproterone acetate are associated with an increased risk compared with oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel,” Van Hylckama Vlieg says. Specifically, the researchers found that:

* Levonorgestrel boosted the risk of blood clots by nearly fourfold compared to nonusers.
* Gestodene boosted risk by 5.6 times.
* Drospirenone boosted risk 6.3 times.
* Cyproterone boosted risk 6.8 times.
* Desogestrel boosted risk 7.3 times.

The risk of blood clots was also associated with the level of estrogen in the pills, with higher estrogen dose linked with higher risk.

Switzerland’s medicines supervisor says it will analyse all birth control pills after a young woman suffered a lung embolism possibly linked to a contraceptive.

A spokesman for the Swiss Agency for Therapeutics (Swissmedic) told Swiss television late on Thursday that it had collected extensive research on various birth control pills and would come to a finding on their health effects in the autumn.

The announcement comes after a 16-year-old woman suffered a lung embolism that left her severely disabled. She had been taking Yasmin birth-control pills produced by Germany’s Bayer company.

Bayer contends the drug presents no more risk for venal thrombosis than other contraceptive pills.

“We assume that Smissmedic’s analysis concerning Yasmin will yield no new findings because Yasmin is one of the most well researched birth-control pills worldwide,” the company said.

Breast cancer and endometrial cancer are increased
Epidemiological studies consistently demonstrate an increased risk of breast cancer in women who used combined menopausal therapy. Largely confined to current or recent users, the risk increases with duration of use and exceeds that in women taking estrogen-only therapy. Endometrial cancer risks depend on the number of days that progestogens are included in the
combined therapy. When progestogens are taken fewer than 10 days per month, the risk of endometrial cancer is increased, but when progestogens are taken daily, the risk is similar to that in women who never used hormonal therapy. There was not sufficient evidence to conclude that hormonal therapy has a protective effect at any cancer site.

Read the entire press release

Is NuvaRing to blame for Jackie Bozicev’s death? Her husband believes so.

Jackie died in December 2007. An autopsy showed she died of a blood clot that traveled from her pelvic area to her lungs. Her husband Rob was baffled. Up until that dreaded day, Jackie was seemingly healthy. She didn’t have a history of clots, nor did she smoke.

When doctors had no answers as to what caused the blood clot that led to his wifes death, Rob turned to Google and found what he believes is the culprit: NuvaRing, a birth control device inserted into the vagina monthly and removed after 3 weeks. A new ring must be inserted no more than 7 days later, according to NuvaRing’s Web site.

The device, made by Organon Pharmaceuticals (now owned by Schering-Plough) is touted as the first-of-its kind contraceptive with magazine ads proclaiming, “Let Freedom Ring.”

More than one million women use NuvaRing. Jackie started using the ring in May 2007, a month after giving birth to her second child.

“Jackie had no indication NuvaRing was any more dangerous than any other contraceptive,” says Carmen Scott, a lawyer representing the family in a civil lawsuit against the drugmaker.

All hormone-based contraceptives raise the risk of blood clots (which can lead to stroke and heart attack) but it is more common with some than others. The riskiest use third-generation hormones, like desogestrel (a similar compound is used in the ring).

Developed in the 1980s, the pills were intended to lessen non-serious side effects of the pill including acne and facial hair. Although largely ineffective in doing so and no better as birth control – which is acknowledged by the FDA – the pills remain on the market, says Mother Jones.

Research has consistently shown that these newer pills nearly double the risk of life-threatening blood clots compared to older forms of birth control pills. In 2007, Public Citizen, a watchdog group, petitioned the FDA to ban third-generation birth control pills. But the agency has yet to take action.

Blood clots can be particularly dangerous because they can travel through the veins and block blood flow at another location, causing a condition known as venous thromboembolism (VTE). Blood clots that travel to the lungs can cause pulmonary embolism, which is often fatal.

The FDA has received reports of 300 or more adverse events including stroke, heart attack, nonfatal blood clots and death, since NuvaRing’s approval in 2001, says Scott. More than 100 pending lawsuits attribute injuries to NuvaRing.

While those numbers may seem low, the pattern within them is relatively similar to those alleged against Johnson & Johnson’s – Ortho Evra, a skin patch approved for birth control. On that brand, 1,500 lawsuits were brought after more than 40 women died from blood clots and stroke.

The problem with both the patch and NuvaRing is one in the same: they deliver a constant stream of the active drug. By contrast, birth control pills enter the body through the digestive tract where much of the chemical is destroyed. Once the drug enters the patient’s blood, it lessens until the next pill is taken. Thus the body gets a rest from the drug whereas the patch/ring-wearer does not.

Injuryboard.com