Risks of Marvelon

Although the pill does not usually cause any problems for its users, it has been linked to a couple of disease conditions. It is known that although the pill does protect you against some cancers, it can also increase your risk of others and it can also increase the risk of circulatory problems. Your risk of having these illnesses increases if you use the pill and have a number of lifestyle or medical factors.

The pill can cause an increase in the risk of breast cancer. This increase is very slight but it can occur. It is rare to have breast cancer under the age of 40 and the disease increases with age so it depends what age you use the pill to how high your risk is. 16 women out of 10,000 will have breast cancer by the age of 35 if they do not use the pill. If you do use the pill for 5 years in the start of your twenties, the number of women increases to 17-18 women. If you look at 10,000 women who have never used the pill, at the age of 4, 100 of them will have breast cancer but this number will increase to 110 if you have used the pill for 5 years in your thirties. Therefore, the older you are, the bigger the risk. Other factors that can increase your risk of breast cancer include having a family history of the disease or being severely overweight whilst using the pill.

The pill can also increase the risk of cervical cancer slightly. This is very unlikely and there are other factors that are more associated with this disease but nevertheless there is a potential risk. Also, in some cases, women who have used the contraceptive pill for a long period of time may experience liver disease or liver tumours.

The risk of blood clots increases whilst using the contraceptive pill because one of the hormones in the pill can affect the blood. Oestrogen can cause your blood to clump together more frequently and cause a blood clot to form, which will block blood vessels. This can be life threatening if it occurs in the arteries that supply the heart because if the blood supply is cut off to this organ, you will have a heart attack. Also, if this occurs in the vessels that are connected to the brain, you can suffer a stroke. You may also have a pulmonary embolism where blood clots form in the lower leg veins and break off, travel to the lungs and block the blood vessels.

Blood clots are more likely to occur if you use the pill and are overweight, have a history of blood clots, have high blood pressure, drink alcohol heavily, have heart problems or are immobile for long periods of time. You are also at risk if you have just given birth.

---

« Marvelon and Side Effects Who Can Use Marvelon? »