Two Australian researchers have stated in a Lancet article that nuns should take the contraceptive pill. What they are really saying is that women who do not have children, nuns being the most obvious example, should be taking the contraceptive pill and their reasoning for this is down to the observed phenomenon that women who do not have children or breastfeed are at a higher risk of cancer of the breast, womb and ovaries due to the fact that they have more periods throughout their lifetime. In accordance with the rules of the Catholic Church, nuns are not allowed to use any form of contraception, another reason that the researchers are focusing their research on this community.
Supporting the article is previous research and theory, including an Australian gynaecologist from the University of Adelaide, who has not contributed to the article, but explains that the female body is designed to, at some point, become pregnant and to lactate. He highlights that women having hundreds of menstruations in their lifetime is a relatively new trend that has been recognised over the years as a potential cause of tumours. Women now have up to 400 cycles in their lifetime whereas women living a century ago experienced on average 40 cycles because of the higher pregnancy rate back then.
The authors of the Lancet article claim that the general rate of mortality is decreased by 12% among those who take the pill compared with those who do not. Furthermore, the risk of breast, womb and ovarian cancer specifically is reduced by more than 50% among those who take the pill. The reason the pill is said to protect against cancers of the uterus is attributed to the dose of oestrogen and progesterone that causes a withdrawal period rather than a real period where the endometrial layer becomes much thicker.
There is not sufficient evidence available to absolutely prove these observations and there are even studies in existence claiming to show that the pill actually increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and other complications. These claims have been contradicted by a 1996 meta-analysis of previous studies in which 9,200 women were questioned; the analysis totally refuted claim of any link between breast cancer and taking an oral contraceptive.
A 39 year study carried out in the University of Aberdeen in 1969 does however, according to New Scientist, show that the benefits of taking the pill outweigh the risks. 46,000 women were observed for this period of time and it was found that those who had developed cancer of the ovaries or uterus and died were more inclined not to have taken the contraceptive pill.