Flaws Found in Birth Control Pill Research
Statiscians reviewing a study on oral contraceptive use find the study's claims that birth control pills reduce the risk of heart disease and does not increase the risk of heart cancer are wrong.
A study presented by the Women's Health Initiative claiming birth control pills reduce the risk of heart disease and does not increase the risk of heart cancer is now being called into question after federal officials pointed to a review finding the studies were flawed.
The study was conducted by Wayne State University researchers and presented without review by WHI, the nation’s largest women’s health study, at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in October.
But statisticians with the WHI Clinical Coordinating Center reviewed the study after the meeting and found “flaws in both the design and interpretation of the WHI data used in the study,” stated Dr. Barbara Alving, acting director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a federal group which funded the study.
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“The statisticians also doubt the validity of a separate cancer abstract which used WHI baseline data to examine OC (oral contraceptives) cancer risks,” Alving said in a statement issued Wednesday.
The breast cancer findings also are suspect now, she told AP.
Previous studies also confirm the health risks associated with oral contraceptive use, according to Alving in the statement.
“There is a large and reputable body of higher scientific evidence linking current oral contraceptive use to future increases in risk of stroke and heart attack, especially in older women and in smokers,” she said. “Other research studies have found that women who take Ocs (oral contraceptives) have a small increased risk for CVD (cardiovascular disease), like blood clots, heart attacks, and stroke.”
The factor of age was one of the main biases of the study, according to Alving, who pointed out the study only enrolled “postmenopausal women who were 50 to 79 years of age when they joined the study.” The study also faltered by basing data on what these older women recalled, to which Alving said, “People can forget.”
Dr. Jacques Rossouw, project officer of the Women's Health Initiative noted in a NewsDay.com article how there was no way to account for the missing women who might have been casualties of the birth control pill's serious adverse effects.
"Anyone who used oral contraceptives in the past and died as a complication of oral contraceptives, like stroke or cancer, would not be enrolled," Rossouw said.
A leader of one pro-life group is not surprised at Alving’s statement revealing the flaws of the birth control pill study and is calling on Alving to commence a full investigation at once.
American Life League president Judie Brown said Thursday, "It's high time for the federal government to take a hard look at the birth control pill. It's time for a realistic examination of what the pill does to preborn human beings during their first week of life, and what it does to women - particularly the problems it creates for them later in life.”
She added, “It further seems that the birth control pill may contribute to the risk of breast cancer after all - a clinical fact which many doctors assert that the government has been overlooking for years.”
The Associated Press reported that John Oliver, vice president for research at Wayne State, said the scientists were reviewing their work and would have no comment now.
