On the fiftieth anniversary of the birth control pill, Human Life International America (HLI America) released a poll which shows that most American women are unaware of the health risks associated with the use of hormonal contraceptives.

“The Pill” has been one of the most commonly used means of birth control since the 1960s but, as HLI America’s report demonstrates, it has also been a source of contention as it has been linked to an increase in the risk of breast cancer.

Jenn Giroux, the executive director of HLI America, said her group commissioned the poll in order to gauge how many women and girls knew of the pill’s risks.

“[I have] concern about this from a women’s perspective,” Giroux said. “A lot of mothers I know share with me and are concerned about their daughters having cramps and follow the advice of their doctors to put their young daughters on the birth control pill, not realizing that any young woman on the pill for four years, before their first full term baby, increase their breast cancer risk 52 percent.”

According to the poll, conducted by the polling company™, inc./Women’s Trend, of “the Pill’s” side effects, only 19 percent of respondents said they had been warned about the increased risk of breast cancer. Forty-nine percent said they were warned of weight gain, 23 percent of headaches, and 40 percent were told of blood clots and the risk of stroke.

“It’s long been known that estrogen/progestogen combination drugs such as the pill does cause breast cancer. In fact, in 2005 the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, put it as a Group I carcinogen,”  said Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, breast cancer surgeon and co-director of Sanofi Aventis Breast Cancer Center Steeplechase Cancer Center.

The majority of women (53 percent) who take or have taken the Pill began at the age of 18 or younger. Fewer than 20 percent of women had never taken the Pill. 60 percent said that they began taking the Pill in order to prevent pregnancy and more than 66 percent said that is the reason they continue to take it. Regulation of menstruation cycle was the second most popular answer to why they began (21 percent) and continue to take (19 percent) the Pill.

“It is clear through these data that women believe it is a positive thing,” Kellyanne Conway, the president and CEO of the polling company™, inc./Women’s Trend. “But it is also clear in this data that they lack fundamental knowledge about the liabilities and the health risks associated with sustained use of the Pill by some of its users.”

“It is time for an awareness campaign for young women and their health and we have to connect the dots,” said Giroux. “Government institutions like the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institutes issues warnings and restrictions all the time on things like cigarettes…but what about issuing these warnings to young women who are taking these hormones and putting themselves at risk for cancer?”