Contemporary hormonal contraception formulations contain lower doses of estrogen, have new synthetic progestin components, and provide novel methods of delivery that have not been studied extensively in relation to breast cancer risk. Given that hormonal contraception is the leading method of birth control in the United States, it is important to reevaluate risk using current formulations. Recent studies including contemporary hormonal contraception formulations will be described.
White hormonal contraception breast cancer risk contemporary formulations review, lower dose estrogen new synthetic progestin breast cancer risk hormonal contraception, combined oral contraceptive breast cancer relative risk prospective cohort evidence, hormonal patch ring implant breast cancer risk newer delivery methods, 1.2 million Danish women hormonal contraception breast cancer Morch 2017 study, American Journal Lifestyle Medicine 2018 hormonal contraception breast cancer risk, estrogen-progestin contraceptive duration breast cancer risk dose-response relationship, progestin-only pill IUD injectable breast cancer risk versus combined methods, contemporary hormonal contraception low-dose formulations breast cancer evidence, hormonal contraception informed consent breast cancer risk prescribing counseling
PMID 30283254 30283254 DOI 10.1177/1559827618754833 10.1177/1559827618754833
Cite this article
White, N. D. (2018). Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk. American journal of lifestyle medicine, 12(3), 224-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827618754833
White ND. Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2018;12(3):224-226. doi:10.1177/1559827618754833
White, Nicole D. "Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk." American journal of lifestyle medicine, vol. 12, no. 3, 2018, pp. 224-226.
Related articles
General OB/GYNCancer Risk AssessmentBreast Cancer RiskCross-Sectional Studies
Herein, our purpose was to calculate the 5-year and lifetime risk of breast cancer and to assess new breast cancer potential contributors among Egyptian women utilizing the modified Gail model, while presenting a global comparison of risk assessment. This study included 7009 women from both urban and rural areas scattered across 40% of the Egyptian provinces. The 5-year risk categories were defined as low risk (≤ 1.66%) or high risk (> 1.66%), whereas the lifetime risk categories were defined as low risk (≤ 20%) or high risk (> 20%). Pearson's Chi-squared test was performed to determine the association between participants' characteristics and distinct risk categories. Binary logistic regression was carried out for correlation analysis. The mean estimated risk for developing invasive breast cancer over 5 years was 0.86 (± 0.67), whereas the mean lifetime breast cancer risk score was 11.26 (± 5.7). Accordingly, only 614 (8.75%) and 470 (6.7%) women were categorized as individuals with high risk of breast cancer incidence in 5-year and lifetime, respectively. Only 192 participants (2.7%) conferred both high 5-year and high lifetime risk scores. Marital status, method of feeding, physical activity behavior, contraceptive use, menopause and number of children were found to have a statistically significant association with both 5-year and lifetime breast cancer risk categories. We revealed that modified Gail model had a well-fitting and discrimination accuracy in Egyptian women when compared with other countries.
Contraception/ComparisonBreast Cancer RiskCombined Oral ContraceptivesProgestin-Only Methods
Little is known about whether contemporary hormonal contraception is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. We assessed associations between the use of hormonal contraception and the risk of invasive breast cancer in a nationwide prospective cohort study involving all women in Denmark between 15 and 49 years of age who had not had cancer or venous thromboembolism and who had not received treatment for infertility. Nationwide registries provided individually updated information about the use of hormonal contraception, breast-cancer diagnoses, and potential confounders. Among 1.8 million women who were followed on average for 10.9 years (a total of 19.6 million person-years), 11,517 cases of breast cancer occurred. As compared with women who had never used hormonal contraception, the relative risk of breast cancer among all current and recent users of hormonal contraception was 1.20 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14 to 1.26). This risk increased from 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96 to 1.23) with less than 1 year of use to 1.38 (95% CI, 1.26 to 1.51) with more than 10 years of use (P=0.002). After discontinuation of hormonal contraception, the risk of breast cancer was still higher among the women who had used hormonal contraceptives for 5 years or more than among women who had not used hormonal contraceptives. Risk estimates associated with current or recent use of various oral combination (estrogen-progestin) contraceptives varied between 1.0 and 1.6. Women who currently or recently used the progestin-only intrauterine system also had a higher risk of breast cancer than women who had never used hormonal contraceptives (relative risk, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.33). The overall absolute increase in breast cancers diagnosed among current and recent users of any hormonal contraceptive was 13 (95% CI, 10 to 16) per 100,000 person-years, or approximately 1 extra breast cancer for every 7690 women using hormonal contraception for 1 year. The risk of breast cancer was higher among women who currently or recently used contemporary hormonal contraceptives than among women who had never used hormonal contraceptives, and this risk increased with longer durations of use; however, absolute increases in risk were small. (Funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.).
Contraception/ComparisonBreast Cancer RiskHormone-Releasing IUD SafetyValidation
Main aim was to estimate the association between use of exogenous hormones and breast cancer (BC) risk in a large population-based survey, and to assess the representativeness and overall validity of the data. The survey 'Women's Health and Use of Hormones' was conducted in Finland in 2009, including 7,000 BC cases and 20,000 matched population controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and their 95 % confidence interval. For validation, exposure prevalences were compared with population data from Statistics Finland and two large population-based surveys. We found positive associations with BC risk and exclusive use of hormone-releasing intrauterine device (HR IUD) in postmenopausal women (1.48, 95 % CI 1.10-1.99), when compared to never-users of any hormonal contraceptive and considering only prediagnostic use in cases. Regarding use of other hormonal contraceptives (HC), a positive association between long HC use (≥2 years) and BC was observed in both groups, OR being 1.37 (95 % CI 1.12-1.68) for premenopausal and 1.11 (95 % CI 1.03-1.20) for postmenopausal women, when compared to never-users of other HC. Observed association between HR IUD use and risk of BC in postmenopausal women is worrying and deserves further attention. Selection bias seemed not to explain this result. Considering the increasing popularity of HR IUD use in, e.g., USA, impact of possible adverse effects in public health could be significant.