Study finds hormonal contraceptives increase breast cancer risk.
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and published in the PLOS Medicine journal has found that the use of all kinds of hormonal birth control is associated with a slight increase in the risk of breast cancer. The study also found that the risk associated with progestin-only pills is broadly in line with the risk already known to be associated with contraceptives that combine estrogen and progestin. However, given the small incidence of breast cancer at the ages at which contraceptives are commonly used, researchers do not suggest women stop taking hormonal birth control in light of any risk — which they say is only small.