Alice Park discusses a recent
research study by neurologist Dr. David Gaist in her article on the online TIME
magazine from January 22, 2015, titled “Birth Control Pill Risks May Now
Include Brain Cancer.” In the study, Dr.
Gaist discovered that women taking hormonal contraception containing estrogen
and/or progestin have an increased chance of developing a brain tumor known as
glioma. This cancer is rare to begin with, but their chances of developing this
type of tumor increases by 50 percent or more.
While Miss Park argues that this
risk is minuscule and that it is no reason for a woman to stop taking birth
control, I contest this presumption and instead ask the question: Why do we
women knowingly ingest artificial means of preventing a natural process when it
poses such a health risk to us? I
believe that Alice Park greatly underestimates the seriousness of this
finding. The discovery by itself is none
too monumental, but if you take into account all the other risks that birth
control contributes to a woman’s body and health, then the gravity of the
situation mounts. Notice how the title
of the article includes the words, “may now include…,” thus implying that this
is not the only finding of hazards linked with the use of hormonal birth
control.
In conclusion, although Park asserts
that this study poses no real threat to the population of women currently on
the pill, I say that this discovery is simply another piece of evidence to reason
that hormonal birth control is more harmful than helpful to women. This is not the first case study that has
proven a link between the pill and serious health risks, nor shall it be the
last.
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