So , oral contra contraceptives help with reducing ovulation and reducing risk . We know that if you take the oral contraceptive for about five years , it reduces your risk of ovarian cancer by 50% . And that's significant because we're so poor at diagnosing ovarian cancer early .
Um So I was taught in high school anyway . Um , would they be wise to suppress ovulation for periodically using hormone based contraception just so that they can offset the risk of ovarian cancer ? That's a very rational question .
So I'll speak first into the benefits because uh I'm gonna get on a soapbox a little bit about the risks . So we know that it reduces the risk of ovarian cancer . So there's something about this idea of incessant ovulation that is not good for the female body .
It could be , it depends on how big the tumor is , how much bulk you have , what it's pressing on . So if it , if um taking estrogen and thereby reducing the frequency of ovulation lowers the risk of ovarian cancer . Should women that are even women who are not sexually active ?
So there's something about this idea of incessant ovulation that is not good for the female body . So if you look at , for instance , women who are nuns who uh don't take oral contraceptives and they have a period every single month of their reproductive lives , they have a greater risk of ovarian cancer . So if you look , then at women who have uh several babies and they've got a period of time when they're pregnant that they're not ovulating and then they breastfeed for some period of time , they have a lower risk of ovarian cancer .
