ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES FOR PREVENTION OF OVARIAN CANCER.
The ovarian cancer can be prevented by long-term use of different generation of oral contraceptives.Moreover,this substantial protection begins quickly ,and increases with increasing duration of use.They suggest that during the past 50 years,200000 cases of ovarian cancer and 100000 deaths from the disease have already been prevented worldwide through the use of oral contraceptives. They calculate that at the current level of contraceptive use atleast 30000 cases of ovarian cancer could eventually be prevented every year.Despite advances in the treatment ,long -term survival rates remain poor thus primary prevention would be amajor advance.Since the introduction of oral contraceptives in the 1960s, there have been many debates about their health benefits and safety .In the current situation of the combination of pill with low-dose oestrogen formulations, the adverse heart effects are short term and have diminished over time.The effect of oral contraceptives on cancer risk is more complex.Despite being shown to decrease the risk of ovarian cancer,oral contraceptives may increase the risk of breast and neck cancers.However, the best evidence on the net effect of oral contraceptives shows a reduction in risk of cancers.Given the well established benefits of avoiding pregnancy,which has ahigh morbidity and some mortality,even in developed countries,the risk-benefits equation is weighted strongly in the favour of giving oral contraceptives to women who seek them ,and who are not contraindicated from taking them.
Oral contraceptives have become the keystone of reproductive health by virtue of their ability to prevent pregnancy.But whether women in their 20s will be prepared to take an oral contraceptive to prevent ovarian cancer where the life-time risk is low(1in 70) remains open to uncertainty.While the average 20 -year-old women may not be thinking about whether she will get ovarian cancer(she is more likely to be concerned about breast and cervix cancer ,where the lifetime risk is much higher.As stronge message about the ovarian the overall cancer preventing benefit of oral contraceptives would be a positive public-health message,empowering women to decide for themselves about the evidence.
