Birth control pills are one of the most effective methods of preventing unintended pregnancy so one wonders how the pills could give men cause for concern. Well, according to a somewhat questionable study published in BMJ Open, Canadian researchers from the Princess Margaret Hospital and the University of Toronto are speculating that the amount of estrogen entering the water supply due to the increased use of contraceptive pills over the last four decades may be responsible for the increased incidence of prostate cancer worldwide.
Say what?
In order to test this creative hypothesis, the researchers used data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the United Nations World Contraceptive Use report to track the country-by-country prevalence of prostate cancer and prostate cancer deaths as well as the number of women using birth control pills. Their intrepid investigative skills revealed that prostate cancer incidence was higher where the use of oral contraceptive use was also high.
But Dr. Anthony D Amico, chief of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women s Hospital in Boston, pokes holes in the current research: This is a study of association, not cause-and-effect. Even the hypothesis it s based on is questionable. And men, he says, should not be concerned.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan echoes the same sentiments, and questions why elevated estrogen levels in the water supply even if they existed, which she insists they do not would cause prostate cancer? Men are actually given estrogenic substances in order to treat or delay the onset of prostate cancer, so why, then, would the same hormone exhibit an opposite effect in this study? If the researchers were to conclude that elevated estrogen levels may be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, then perhaps there d at least be a shred of plausibility to their claim. However, as it stands, she says, this is nothing more than a crackpot theory, and a ridiculous story from a scientific point of view BMJ Open as well as USA Today, which ran this story with a straight face, should both be ashamed. I won t even mention my thoughts about the authors of this travesty.
ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom doesn t subscribe to the researchers' hypothesis, but he admits, I have noticed a rather disturbing urge to buy designer shoes lately.
