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.

Comments

Certain forms of birth control can be linked to a lower risk of some cancers. Research done in the article says that birth control pills can reduce ovarian cancer risk by up to 50%. This research was done by the National Cancer Institute, an official government website, which I checked and had the same findings. Similarly, hormonal IUDs may help prevent or even treat early-stage cancers, which I also found to be true at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's official website

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I like the source you used for this factcheck, but overall I think the title can be very misleading, especially because you didn't add prior information from the article. I think next time if you added more information it would've strengthened this fact check, as well as finding different articles to further support this fact check.

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Although this has been proven false, you don't seem to be exactly claiming what the original fact check does and neither does the article which makes this a little misleading. Along with that WebMD is always the best source to use in these and can often be an unreliable source on some topics. I would've found a better source and perhaps changed your original claim a little.

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I agree that cancer can be caused by a variety of factors, so crediting it to a single product like birth control isn't entirely accurate. I thought your explanation did a good job of showing the risks of products like birth control while also showing some sources for more accurate lists for the risks associated with the medication.

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This article is very helpful in answering the claim of if birth control affects the chances of getting cancer by explaining the different side effects in some common birth control methods. The article is also medically reviewed by a qualified doctor which can help better support the claim. I do think it is a little misleading because it only talks about some forms of birth control and shares concise information on only some of them. I do agree with the claim that birth control can cause cancer because I have seen outside sources that also support this claim, but I don’t think this article is the best example to support this claim.

Answer 1

This claim is very misleading and not entirely true. Oral contraceptives can slightly increase your risk of getting breast and cervical cancers and if you use these pills for a long time, that risk can increase. However, birth control can also lower your risk with endometrial cancer, colon cancer and ovarian cancer. There is a slight risk with these pills because researchers think the hormone like high-dose estrogen could be a link, but doctors are not sure. Overall, this claim exaggerates the effect of birth control and misleads women who might be thinking of going on the pill. There is no guarantee that someone could get cancer from birth control, there are only slight chances that these contraceptives can slightly increase your risk of getting it. 

Articles used:

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

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/latest-news/birth-control-cancer-which-methods-raise-lower-risk.html

Answer 2

Data from studies cannot definitely establish that taking oral contraceptives causes cancer. This is due to the fact that all cases of women developing cancer are either prospective cohort studies, case-control studies, or observational studies which cannot be generalized to the public. This is also false because women who take birth control may differ from women who do not take birth control in other ways than their oral contraceptive use. However, for certain people, the increased amount of synthetic female hormones increase their risk for cancer but this is extremely rare. 

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet#:~:text=Overall%2C%20however%2C%20these%20studies%20have,reduced%20(1%E2%80%933).

Answer 3

The claim that birth control causes cancer is pretty dramatic compared to what's said in the article itself. The article claims that oral contraceptives may slightly increase your risk for breast and cervical cancer, especially if used after the age of 40 because of estrogen and progesterone. The Cleveland health clinic also supports the link between excess estrogen and typically female cancers stating most kinds of breast cancers require estrogen or progesterone to grow and excess exposure does increase risk for developing breast cancer. I did notice that the Cleveland clinic and other sources linking hormones to breast and cervical cancers were mostly concerned with menopause hormone therapy and hardly mentioned birth control as an issue we should be worried about. The article also brings up studies that found that IUDs can decrease the risk of multiple types of cancer, but also some hormone IUDs can increase risk. The article comes to the conclusion that the IUD has not been studied enough or for long enough to know. 

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10312-estrogen-dependent-cancers

Answer 4

While this claim is technically correct, the title is still exaggerated and can be very misleading. The provided source explains that oral contraceptives may put you at a slightly higher risk of some cancers, but birth control also lowers your chances of getting some types of cancer. The article provided by the poster also states that IUDs can decrease four types of cancer's risk. This claim does not fully explain the affects of birth control properly and can sound very scary without being properly looked into. These risks are also specific to oral contraceptives, which reduce the risk of three types of cancer, and increase the risk of two types of cancer.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet#:~:text=Overall%2C%20however%2C%20these%20studies%20have,reduced%20(1%E2%80%933).

Answer 5

The claim seems to be somewhat misleading. In the article, the author makes strong claims that research shows birth control is a serious contender to cancer without giving any resources to back up the data. The website, WebMD, is also not an extremely reliable source, as people can edit and change articles. There are, however, reliable sources for IUDs possibly reducing the risk of ovarian cancer. However, the main claim made is that birth control causes cancer, which is not backed up or fact checked in the article. The National Cancer Institute does explain that oral contraceptives increase the risk of breast and cervical cancer, but the article does not state this information.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

The article emphasizes how birth control causes cancer. Still, the study I read said birth control may raise the risk of some cancers but can also lower the risk of other cancers, meaning that the article is not necessarily wrong but is not the most accurate. I believe this article is likely misinformation. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet#:~:text=Overall%2C%20however%2C%20these%20studies%20have,reduced%20(1%E2%80%933).

Answer 8

this claim is exaggerated and misleading. it has recently come out that "Women who had used it for two years or longer before age 25 had an increased risk of breast cancer". and in general using birth control can lead to a higher risk of getting cancer, however this does not mean that birth control has a direct link to cancer. birth control having a side effect of a higher risk of developing cancer and birth control causing cancer are very different things. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1837651/#:~:text=Women%20who%20had%20used%20it,breast%20cancer%20in%20young%20women.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet#:~:text=Overall%2C%20however%2C%20these%20studies%20have,reduced%20(1%E2%80%933).

Answer 9

The article on birth control and cancer risk is misleading because it focuses too heavily on potential risks while not adequately addressing the benefits. Although it mentions that birth control may slightly increase the risk of breast and cervical cancer, it fails to emphasize that it also reduces the risk of other cancers, such as ovarian, endometrial, and colorectal cancers. The National Cancer Institute highlights both risks and protective benefits, but the article doesn't provide a balanced view of these factors and presents a biased and one sided claim. This article presents an unnecessary and untrue fear factor to women who may be considering birth control, therefore proving to be disinformation.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet#:~:text=Researchers%20have%20proposed%20multiple%20ways,(colorectal%20cancer)%20(23)

Answer 10

The claim that "birth control causes cancer" oversimplifies a complex issue. While certain forms of birth control are associated with an increased risk for some types of cancer, they also significantly reduce the risk of others. 

for example when looking at oral contraceptives 

• Increased Risk: There is evidence of a slight increase in breast and cervical cancer risk, particularly with long-term use or in older individuals. The synthetic hormones estrogen and progesterone are thought to play a role in this increased risk.
• Decreased Risk: Oral contraceptives have been shown to lower the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers significantly (by up to 50% and 30%, respectively). They may also reduce colorectal cancer risk by 15-20%
• https://www.mskcc.org/news/birth-control-and-cancer-risk 
• https://blog.dana-farber.org/insight/2023/02/do-contraceptives-reduce-or-increase-the-risk-of-cancer/