Whenever I hear the risks that come at the end of a birth control commercial, I tend to gulp. While it is without a doubt necessary to have protection, hearing the possible risks including blood clots, stroke and heart attack make me worry about what is in my future. Well it looks like the 12 million women in the United States who take the contraceptive pill can be reassured that the good out weighs ways the bad.

Research, published in the British Medical Journal, followed 46,000 women for nearly 40 years and found “that in the longer term, women who used oral contraception had a significantly lower rate of death from any cause, including heart disease and all cancers, compared with women who had never taken it.”

Sounds pretty good? If you are like me you are waiting for some type of catch to come in unfortunately there is one. These findings are based on tests of first generation birth control pills rather than the more modern types that are used now, since their study began in 1968. Therefore we will have to wait another 30 or 40 years before we know if Orth-Tri-Cyclen or Yaz are going to have the same results. I hope they incorporate the Ring, Patch, Shot and any other Birth Control methods into the study so that more women can feel safer about their use of contraceptives.

Reuters: Women on the Pill Live Longer: Study

Tags: 12 million women, birth control commercial, Birth Control Patch, Birth Control Ring, Birth Control Shot, cancers, contraceptive pill, contraceptives, heart disease, oral contraception, Orth-Tri-Cyclen, Yaz