Claim: Birth Control Causes Cancer

Question

If you use birth control, you might be wondering whether it affects your chances of getting cancer, IUDs, birth control pills, birth control shots, and others raise or lower your risk.

Answer 1

This claim is exaggerated/misleading. The article itself does a good job of outlining several different methods of birth control and contraceptives, and though it does show that some forms of birth control do increase your risk for some types of cancer it in no way makes a blanket statement that birth control causes cancer. The article also includes data that shows that some forms of birth control can decrease your risk of cancer or those that have no effect, which is another reason the claim is misleading because it completely leaves out this part of the article. Birth control decreasing your risk of cancer is backed up by data in this article and in other medical journals/papers (National Cancer Institute). To be effective, the claim would have at least allude to the specific of types of cancer, percent risks, and types of contraceptives.

Answer 2

This claim is very misleading. While it is true that birth control "may slightly increase your risk of getting breast and cervical cancers" (WebMD), it is also true that using them causes a decrease in risk of other types of cancers. In the first paragraph of the cited article it says that use of birth control "can also play a role in lowering your risk of some cancers". It is not fair to make a blanket statement that birth control causes cancers while deliberately leaving out how it lowers the risk of some as well. According to Andrea Milbourne, M.D, "A lot of people think the pill always ups your risk of cancer, but that’s simply not true" (MD Anderson Cancer Center). Experts agree that there is no large increase in overall risk of developing cancer due to use of birth control, despite this claim.

https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/birth-control-cancer-risk

https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/birth-control-pill-and-cancer-risk.h28Z1590624.html