Researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and their associates discovered that a 15-year absolute excess incidence is only 265 instances per 100,000 users at most.A recent study found that the use of all hormonal contraceptives is marginally related with an increased risk of breast cancer.
Regardless of the method of delivery, the study, which was published in the journal PLOS Medicine, discovered a relative increase in breast cancer risk of 20 to 30% related with both combination and progestogen-only contraceptives.
Researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and their associates discovered that a 15-year absolute excess incidence is only 265 instances per 100,000 users at most.
The use of oral contraceptives that contain both oestrogen and progestogen hormones has previously been linked to a slight increase in the risk of breast cancer, but there is little information available regarding the impact of progestogen-only contraceptives, according to the researchers.
They claimed that by 2020, there will be almost as many prescriptions in England for oral progestogen-only contraceptives as there will be for combined oral contraceptives due to the significant rise in the usage of progestogen-only contraceptives in recent years.
The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), a primary care database in the UK, was used by the researchers to analyse data on 9,498 women under 50 who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 1996 and 2017 as well as data on 18,171 closely matched controls.
In general, 44% of breast cancer survivors and 39% of the matched controls had a prescription for a hormonal contraceptive, with roughly 50% of those prescriptions being for progestogen-only medications.
The associated 15-year absolute increased incidence of breast cancer with oral combination or progestogen-only contraceptive use was calculated at 8 instances per 100,000 hormonal contraceptive users at age 16–20 years and 265 cases per 100,000 users at age 35–39 years.
Regardless of the type of contraception used—a mixed (oestrogen and progestogen) oral preparation, a progestogen-only oral preparation, an injectable progestogen, or a progestogen-releasing intrauterine device—the probabilities of breast cancer were similarly and significantly increased.
These findings were merged with those from earlier studies conducted in high-income nations that included women of a wider variety of ages.
According to Kirstin Pirie of the University of Oxford, "Our findings show that current or recent use of all types of progestogen-only contraceptives is associated with a modest increase in breast cancer risk, similar to that associated with use of combined oral contraceptives."
The absolute excess risk associated with using any form of oral contraceptive will be lower in women who use it at younger rather than older ages given that the underlying risk of breast cancer increases with advancing age, according to Pirie.
The researchers underlined that these increased hazards needed to be weighed against the benefits of using contraception during a woman's reproductive years, which are widely known.
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