LONDON — Women who took birth-control pill beginning in the late 1960s lived longer than those never on the pill, a new study says.
British researchers observed more than 46,000 women for nearly four decades from 1968. They compared the number of deaths in women on the pill with those who never took it.
In the study, women on the pill generally took it for almost four years. Experts concluded the pill cut women’s risk of dying from bowel cancer by 38 percent and from any other diseases by about 12 percent.
The research was published Friday in the British medical journal, BMJ.
Slightly higher death rates were found among women younger than 30 on the pill, but that started to reverse by age 50.
Doctors aren’t sure exactly why the pill might lower death rates. It contains synthetic hormones to suppress ovulation, which might have some role in preventing certain diseases.
Previous studies have found the pill does not raise the risk of dying. It also might protect against ovarian and endometrial cancer but slightly increase the chances of breast and cervical cancer. It might also be that women on the pill are somehow healthier than those who aren’t.
