by Julia Kaye, Program Assistant
National Women's Law Center
A new study out of Belgium finds that women who are on the birth control pill for long periods of time might have an increased risk of atherosclerosis, the medical term for plaque buildup in the arteries. For years, women taking the pill — especially smokers — have been informed that it has potential side effects of blood clotting and high blood pressure, both of which can, like plaque buildup, result in heart attacks or stroke. But while a woman’s risk of blood clots will gradually disappear once she goes off the pill, plaque will continue to build up for decades after a woman stops taking the pill, says researcher Ernst Rietzschel, MD, of Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium.
For an analysis of the science of this study (and what it actually means for women on the pill), scroll a few paragraphs down. In brief: Do not worry! Even the researchers say that this study is no cause for “panic” or “alarm.”
No, it’s not the science that makes this study so scary…
When the newly-appointed head of the national family planning program says that birth control is part of the “culture of death,” we are reminded that contraception continues to be under attack, and women who want to protect their reproductive rights should keep an eye on any study about birth control receiving as much press attention as this one. As we saw in Supreme Court Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart, the recently decided case upholding the federal abortion ban with no exception for the woman’s health, it has become “trendy” for anti-choicers (and even judges!) to steep their arguments against women’s rights in we’re-just-making-their-decisions-for-them-for-their-own-damn-good rhetoric.
On Pro-Life Pulse, blogger Jill Stanek exploits this study to argue that women should not trust oral contraceptives at all. She writes:
The researchers saw a rise of 20 to 30% in arterial plaque in two big arteries — the carotid in the neck and the femoral in the leg — for each decade of use.
“For each decade of use”?
Still Rietzschel said, “Don't panic." Easy for him to say as a man as well as self-serving. I wonder if he'd likewise pat men on the head after announcing a male bc pill carried the same risks. But as I've said before, men wouldn't be stupid enough to take it to begin with…
Women are so, so stupid, gullible, and exploited.
Now that is scary (and while we’re at it: insulting, inaccurate, and generally ridiculous).
So it’s just another fact-free study ready to be manipulated by the anti-choice community, right?
Well, let’s see.
The study’s researchers said that women who use the pill should not “panic,” and that the study should not “be a cause for alarm among women.” After all, plaque build-up is a risk, not a guarantee, and risk is relative. Eat your fruits and veggies, ride your bike to work, throw out that pack of Marlboro Lights and think about the cholesterol in that juicy filet before biting into it, and I can guarantee that you’ll lower your risk of heart disease. And before you trash your monthly pack of BC, you might also want to think about the rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States.
Furthermore, the results show no more than an association between birth control and atherosclerosis — not a direct cause-and-effect — and are yet to be corroborated. You might also be reassured by the fact that many of the women participating in this study took oral contraceptives released in the 1960s, which had twice the estrogen levels in most pills sold today. The results, therefore, do not necessarily translate to young women taking the new-and-improved birth control pills of today.
But the decreased estrogen levels in today’s birth control pills are a perfect example of why this study should not be ignored. The World Health Organization reports that approximately 100 million women worldwide are currently on the pill. Long-term studies such as this one contribute important information to the knowledge pool surrounding birth control, and can help researchers develop increasingly safe methods of contraception.
Studies on birth control are a good thing — except when they’re manipulated and used to deny women the right to contraception.
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