That blasted pill

'RX.' Photography series by Jonathon Kambouris. Artwork has no relation to topic at hand, but they look pretty cool! More images here.

I was having dinner with some of my cousins a few months back, and we were talking about exercise. One of them, a fitness enthusiast, got asked (as a joke), "Do you use 'roids or something?" ("'Roids" as in steroids.) He snapped, "'Roids will give me cancer. Anything that gives me cancer is not for me!"

"Now, how on earth is this connected to chastity, modesty and purity?" you ask. In a culture where these virtues are valued little, one carcinogen seems to be taken too lightly that some women pop them every morning like vitamins. Nowadays, oral contraceptives (OCs) are easily available over-the-counter when women want to "exercise their freedom of choice." It seems that many people just don't think about how these OCs increase a woman's chances of getting breast cancer.

According Dr. Virginia G. Guzman-Manzo, "Hormones are known to play a role in many cases of breast cancer. Oral and injectable contraceptives are actually made up of hormones just like those found normally in a woman, which are responsible in carrying out her reproductive functions. Many of the risk factors of developing breast cancer are related to a woman’s natural hormones. Therefore there has been considerable concern about the possible effects of OCs on breast cancer risk, especially if women take them for many years."

Another doctor, Dr. Peachie Pie Alvia, puts it more bluntly: "Alam mo, when men take those pills, they grow breasts. Paano pa kaya kung women?" (You know, when men take those pills, they grow breasts. How much more will it affect women?)

If you check out Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a website for breast cancer awareness, you'll find a risk factor table that puts "Birth control pills" under a "weak increase in risk" for breast cancer. The risk factors that pose a greater risk are things that cannot be helped: a woman's age, her childbearing history, her family history, specific characteristics of her body (such as the density of the breast) etc. This means that while much of what causes breast cancer is something you cannot do anything about, there are things you can do to lessen your risk, and not taking OCs is one of them.

Healthy ladies don't need to pollute their system with excessive hormones! And married or not, women (and men) would do well to respect the natural functions of the body, and to remember that love thinks of the other person more than the self.


"Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents."-Peter Latham