A new report in the British Medical Journal gives us the results of a 39 year study involving over 46,000 women. The shocking results: in the long term, women who have taken birth control pills may live longer!

While there was a short term increase in risk from “earlier data”, risks declined over time. Women who took the pill had a reduced risk of all cancers, including “main gynecological cancers combined.” This is a great surprise, considering that women have been told for decades that to get a prescription for birth control pills, they must submit to annual screening for cervical cancer and pre-cancerous conditions. Women on the pill also had lower risk of heart disease and “all circulatory disease.” Considering that heart disease and cancer are the #1 and #2 causes of death respectively in American women accounting for roughly 48% of deaths, this is an important finding.

One caution, “The study continues to find a higher rate of violent or accidental death among oral contraceptive users compared with never users. The authors are unable to explain this persistent finding.”