BREAST CANCER LINK TO NEW PILL

Risk rises slightly, study finds

- MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor

TAKING a progestogen-only Pill has a small risk of breast cancer similar to combined oral contraceptives, a study found.

The risk of an average 30-year-old woman not on the Pill developing breast cancer was 0.8%, which increased to 0.9% for those using either form of contraceptive Pill.

Researchers analysed data on 9,500 women who developed breast cancer between the ages of 20 and 49 and compared them to 18,000 matched women without the disease.

They found being on the Pill for five years increased a woman's chance of developing breast cancer within the next 15 by 20-30%, depending on how old she was at the time.