the pill and ovarian cancer

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Quite a few sources state that the birth control pill reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and this is said to have something to do with the fact that a person on the pill ovulates less but it seems rather a weak link to me.

And since pharmaceutical estrogen and estrogen/ progestin were added to the FDA list of carcinogens (cancer causing) chemicals in 2005, it may well be that any benefit a woman gets from ovulating less is cancelled out by the cancer causing properties of pharmaceutical estrogen!

Some research at Duke University in 2002, opined that it may be the progestin in the birth control pill that kills damaged cells that might later cause cancer (as a news article wrote below):

>>>>>>Scientists have known for years that women who take oral contraceptives are less likely to develop ovarian cancer. It's always been assumed that the reason was because ovulation damaged the walls of the ovaries, and since oral contraceptives stop ovulation, less ovulation means less damage and therefore less chance of ovarian cancer. New research at Duke University Medical Center shows this is not the case. It is actually a substance in the pill called progestin that causes damaged cells in the ovary to be killed -- ****cells that might eventually cause cancer****. Its a process called apoptosis<<<<<<

Logic tells me there is a lot wrong with all of the above.

First, if the risk of ovarian cancer is really reduced by taking the pill, why is it that we have a much higher incidence of ovarian cancer today than observed in the 1950's before the pill?

Second, if taking the pill cuts down the ovarian cancer risks, then, ovarian cancer should be really in high incidence among nuns and sisters who ovulate monthly and never take any birth control medication but actually this type of cancer is almost non existent among women religious!

And finally, pharmaceutical estrogen is a known "cancer activator" (encourages cancerous growth in damaged cells) and a cancer initiator (damages the cells in the first place) and if that is so, any medication with pharmaceutical estrogen in it, will not cut the risk for any cancer but on the contrary. (Ref: for one, see the HERS and Women's Health initiative studies)

As Attorney Phillip Johnson quipped "If we lawyers followed the same poor logic as does science at times, we would be laughed out of court!"