Contraceptive pills prevent unwanted pregnancies but put you at risk of developing a brain tumor. Study shows that the longer the period of time a woman has taken birth control pills, the greater the risk of brain tumor.

A new Danish research implies that estrogen pills, taken for a long period of time, can lead to a specific type of brain tumor, called glioma.

The Danish researchers have studied government data on women with ages between 15 to 49 years old who had been diagnosed with the tumor between 2000 and 2009.

During their investigation, scientists identified 317 cases of glioma, out of which 60% had used contraceptive pills a period of their lives. Then they compared the results with the 2,100 healthy women, out of which around 50% had used birth control pills at some point. The risk for developing glioma, appeared to be higher when using contraceptive pills for a long period of time. Women who have been using birth control pills for less than a year, had 40% more chances of developing the brain tumour compared with the ones who had not been on the pill. Those who have been using the pills for over five years had a double risk of glioma, showed the study.

Even so, researchers stated that birth control pills wouldn’t be necessarily the main cause of the tumour and further studies need to be conducted on this medical matter.For decades, birth control pills have been prescribed for different problems of he female reproductive system and are considered to decrease the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.

Tumors like gliomas are extremely rare, so even if the risk had doubled, the chances to develop it would still remain small, explained doctor David Gaist. Out of 100,000 women, only five would annually develop glioma.

The Danish women who used only progestin based pills, had a slight higher risk of developing the tutor, and doctor Gaist believes it is because them being obese. Medical laws in Denmark prohibit the prescription of estrogen pills to obese women, as it increases the risk of blood cloths.

In the United States, during the period of 2000 and 2011, the brain tumor, glioma, affected around 2 women out of every 100,000, with the ages between 15 and 29, stated doctor Evan Myers professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University Medical Centre in Durham.
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