Depo-Provera Tied to Breast Cancer Risk
April 5th, 2012 tmccoy
A recent study published in Cancer Research, reported that use of Depo-Provera (depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate, or DPMA), an injectable progestin-only birth control for over a year or more doubles the risk of birth control in young women. This contraception uses the same kind of progestin found in the hormone-therapy regimen used in menopausal women that was found to have increased the risk of breast cancer in women after menopause. This is the first study to look at the link between DPMA usage and increased breast cancer in young women.
However, the possible harm done by taking DPMA is reversible. The increased risk for invasive breast cancer goes down within months after a woman stops using DPMA. The results of the study showed that women who had stopped using DPMA at least a year ago or who had taken DPMA for less than a year did not have an increased risk of breast cancer.
“Our findings emphasize the importance of identifying the potential risks associated with specific forms of contraceptives given the number of available alternatives,” study leader Dr. Christopher Li, a breast cancer epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues wrote.
Source – Sciencecodex.com
