The information that certain types of birth control pills significantly increase the risk of breast cancer has spread rapidly on social media. It had an immediate effect, notes Helena Kopp Kallner, chief physician at Danderyd Hospital and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Karolinska Institutet.
Youth clinics across the country have been completely inundated with questions about this, she says.
The data is linked to a new study from Uppsala University, which shows that hormonal contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer by 24 percent. Some types of birth control pills show a lower risk, while preparations with the synthetic hormone desogestrel showed a 50 percent risk of breast cancer with long-term use.
Larger context
Helena Kopp Kallner notes that it has been known for a long time that birth control pills can increase the risk of breast cancer. However, she questions the different levels of risk that the study points to. She emphasizes that the study must be placed in a larger context.
Overall, birth control pills do not increase the risk of cancer, as they also protect against other forms of cancer, such as colon cancer and ovarian cancer. They have a higher mortality rate than breast cancer, so it can be said that the risk of dying from cancer is reduced with birth control pills.
She also points out that an increased risk of breast cancer of around 25 percent only corresponds to one additional case per approximately 8,000 women.
Great responsibility
Helena Kopp Kallner says that universities and the media have a great responsibility to provide balanced information. Otherwise, the risk of self-proclaimed experts exaggerating and passing on information on social media increases.
Influencers have to get people to click on their sites so they can get advertising revenue.
Her advice is to never make drastic decisions – like throwing away the pack of birth control pills – based on one source.
Be critical and turn to people who actually have training in the field. And trust the healthcare.
Professor Åsa Johansson, one of the researchers behind the study, has previously said that she is not urging anyone to stop using birth control pills. In an email to TT, she writes that the goal is for women in the future to be able to make safer decisions. "We strongly distance ourselves from the scaremongering that is sometimes spread on social media," she writes.
