Ifeoluwa Tugbobo
March 7th, 2019
Deeadra Brown
Writing for the Sciences
                           “Don’t Kid Yourself”: An Article On The Importance of Birth Control
Picture this. Imagine you’re a 15-year-old girl who recently realized that your period was late by two weeks and you’ve had been feeling pretty nauseated lately. You realized that the last time you had sex with your boyfriend, he did not wear a condom. You quickly run to the nearest pharmacy and raid the “female products” aisle for several pregnancy tests. You dash home and takes all of the tests. You’re pregnant, and you’re not ready for a baby.

Unwanted pregnancy in a young woman’s life is often a deterrent to her education, life goals, and may lead to a short marriage. Are you aware of how significant teen pregnancy to the number of high school dropouts and stay-at-home moms? Luckily, unwanted pregnancies can be prevented with contraceptives. Contraceptives and fertility management, informally known as birth control, are defined as methods of preventing pregnancy. Did you know that since the legalization of birth control the teen birth rates had dropped to 64%, especially in the last twenty–five years (Urban et.al, 2015)? The drop in teen birth rates is an indication of the combination of improved contraceptives and long term use of birth control. Methods of female birth control include the IUD, diaphragm, the cervical cap, vaginal ring, sterilization, hormonal injections, and the most popular, the hormonal pill.  However, research is beginning to illuminate the fact that long term contraceptive use, ten years or more, may be linked to cancers of the female reproductive system.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, approximately 9% of women, ages fifteen to forty-nine, were estimated to be taking oral contraception while 4% take injectable implants (Urban et.al, 2015).  Effective and safe methods of use have only recently become available to the masses, especially in the United States. Most people in America are aware that it is a preventative measure for pregnancy, but few truly know the intricacies involved in the oral/injectable versions of contraception. It’s important to note the side effects to long term use of oral/injectable contraception. One study recently stated that one of those detriments could impact women specifically in terms of cancer of the female reproductive system. The researchers chose to focus specifically on the cancers that develop in the breast (tissue overlying the chest muscles), cervix (tissue that connects the vagina and uterus), ovary (female sex organ that produces and releases eggs), and endometrium (the inner lining of the uterus). Margaret Urban and her collective team of researchers investigated contraceptives and disease in their scientific article “Injectable and oral contraceptive use and cancers of the breast, cervix, ovary, and endometrium in black South African women: a case-control study,” published in the PlosOne Medicine journal on March 6th, 2015.  

This scientific investigation compared short-term and long-term users of contraception with those who had never taken oral or injectable birth control in their lives in order to assess risk to cancer to their risk. The researchers chose to focus on oral and injectable contraception, especially injectable forms because research on the connection between contraception cancer was lacking. The choice in the specific population, black South African women, was primarily due to the high usage of injectable forms of birth control versus oral forms amongst their group. Instead of being in a formal laboratory setting, this experiment was an ongoing case-control study conducted in the greater Johannesburg public hospitals. First, scientists got the study ethically approved. Next, their test subjects were recruited, a questionnaire was created, and participants were interviewed. In the survey, the women were asked questions about the oral and injectable forms of contraceptives to classify the use of hormonal contraceptives. The experimental group was established as the newly diagnosed patients of “invasive breast, cervical, ovarian or endometrial cancer,” whereas the control group consisted of women diagnosed with cancer that have never related to oral/injectable contraception (Urban et.al, 2015). The results were statistically analyzed using several mathematical models and advanced computer programs. Researchers found that for new and long term user the risk of cervical cancer increased with oral/injectable contraceptive use yet with breast cancer there was no significant difference between experimental and control groups noticed. Conversely, the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer decreased, following the use of contraception for five years and longer. The results of the present study supported previous findings. The research, as a whole, indicates that the use of hormonal oral/injectable contraception may lead to an increased risk of cervical cancer. Furthermore, the possibility of risk for ovarian and endometrial cancer following long term use of these forms of birth control may be reduced. The investigation further shows that risk is not connected to the length of use of the contraceptives. The research overall focused on the importance of contraception and how there could be potential implications for cancer following long term use. In the female reproductive system, hormonal medications may be disrupting or influencing the various processes involved in maintaining a woman’s homeostasis. The reasoning behind the researchers’ work is that the cancers depend on the body’s natural sex hormones for further growth and metastasis, defined as the spreading of cancer across multiple sites of the body.

The new discoveries in the study may further aid women in making informed decisions on contraceptive choices. Often the level of education is a deciding factor in whether contraception is used during sexual activities. Many teenagers and young women are not informed about the choices they can make in terms of birth control. Today, it is not hard to be educated about sexual health; however, there are moral and political considerations to be made. Ethical implications of birth control usage correlate with religious people being intolerant of contraception, as well as women being afraid of long-term consequences. Political considerations, especially today, concern the government’s ill-advised practices. For example, Planned Parenthood, a refuge for many women and men concerned for their sexual health, is in danger of being removed by the government. The family planning program now has newly placed restrictions affecting women’s access to several kinds of healthcare.
This is especially useful for young women and men who are at a stage in their lives where pregnancy prevention is ideal. Without a baby to take care of, young men and women can focus on their health, schoolwork, and fun activities. Moreover, the child would not have to be raised by parents not yet financially or emotionally stable enough to take care of them. In other words, ensuring that the stability of their future is not threatened until they are ready to make the big decision of conceiving a child is why most youths take contraception. Considering that a child takes a physical, fiscal and mental toll on a person, it is important that young people consider the effect of their sexual actions. It’s important to learn as much as you can about the avenues of health that are available to you.

 

References

1. Urban, M., Banks, E., Egger, S., Canfell, K., O’Connell, D., Beral, V., & Sitas, F.. 2015. Injectable and oral contraceptive use and cancers of the breast, cervix, ovary, and endometrium in black South African women: case–control study. . PLOS medicine 9(3):1-11.