Oral Contraceptives as Ovarian Cancer Prevention: In the News

Extract

Throughout the country, people heralded the news that the U.S. government approved free birth control as preventive health care for women. But few publications picked up on a footnote to the benefits of oral contraceptive usage: Birth control may also prevent ovarian cancer.

Like many people, Karen Kaplan, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, embraced the provision of oral contraceptives as “historic for women's health.”

“On the whole, it's good news. It's a really important step,” Kaplan said. “But we want physicians and researchers to know that it is also ovarian cancer prevention, because women and even gynecologists perhaps don’t know this.”

The relatively low prevalence of the disease may account for this lack of knowledge. Roughly 20,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, compared with about 10 times that many for breast cancer.

“My own gynecologist said in his 40 years of practice, he's only seen a handful of cases,” said Kaplan.