Nuns should take contraceptive pill to cut cancer risk

By Admin
While writing in the Lancet medical journal two health experts have claimed nuns should take the contraceptive pill to reduce their risk of developing...

While writing in the Lancet medical journal two health experts have claimed nuns should take the contraceptive pill to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

It is commonly believed that women who do not go through pregnancy or breastfeed children are more at risk of developing breast, womb and ovarian cancer as they have more periods in their lifetime.

Studies of nuns have also found that cancer-related mortality rates are higher among nuns than other women.  

To read the latest edition of Healthcare Global, click here

According to the two Australian researchers, overall mortality rates are 12 percent lower in pill-takers and the risk of breast, ovarian and womb cancer is cut by approximately 50-60 percent if women take the pill.

However, nuns have been banned from taking any kind of contraception apart from abstinence.

Professor Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne, and Dr Kara Britt, from Melbourne’s Monash University, said in their Lancet opinion article that nuns “pay a terrible price for their chastity because they have a greatly increased risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.

They also said: “The Catholic church condemns all forms of contraception except abstinence, as outlined by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae in 1968.

“If the Catholic Church could make the contraceptive pill freely available to all its nuns, it would reduce the risk of those accursed pests, cancer of the ovary and uterus, and give nuns’ plight the recognition it deserves.”

Our magazine is now available on the iPad. Click here to download it.

Share

Featured Articles

Siemens: smart finance to help medical technology growth

Penny Pinnock, Business Development Manager at Siemens Financial Services UK, discusses how adopting digital technology can support the healthcare sector

Healthcare Digital news roundup: prostate cancer & AI

This week in Healthcare Digital, we heard from experts in the sector: Trevor Dearing from Illumio, Avenda Health’s Brit Berry-Pusey & Vish Charan of Abbott

Lexica shares post-COVID-19 digital healthcare trends

Joanna Smith, Digital Advisory Lead at consulting company Lexica, explores the impact of COVID-19 on digital healthcare & what role health data can play

Medical devices expanding senior healthcare innovation

Medical Devices & Pharma

Abbott’s CRM medical devices can help cardiac arrhythmia

Medical Devices & Pharma

AutoRABIT CEO Meredith Bell on DevOps strategy in healthcare

Hospitals