Breast Cancer: the Pill's Deadly Legacy

I'm a breast cancer survivor. When I was 39 I found a lump during a self-exam. To make a long story short I had surgery (modified radical mastectomy) and chemotherapy. And here I am about twenty years later to tell the tale. Because I had absolutely no risk factors and was nursing a little one at the time, my doctor presumed it was a clogged milk duct and didn't order a mammogram. When it didn't go away and seemed to be getting larger I went for one. (Always question your doctor - better safe than sorry.)

At the time (1986) very little was known about breast cancer in pre-menopausal women; it was still relatively uncommon. The cancer hadn't spread to the lymph nodes and the surgeon thought I was free and clear. The oncologist recommended otherwise. I chose chemo, not because there were studies showing it was effective in younger women, but because he said, "You get one chance to hit cancer hard and your children are very young." Ten years later studies showed a longer survival rate for the surgery + chemo combo.

Over the years I've noticed cancer attack younger and younger women? Why? Why has breast cancer become not only a disease of middle-aged and older women, but is hitting women in their 30s, their 20s, and even teenagers. One answer is the birth control pill. A study by the Mayo Clinic found the pill is particularly dangerous for women who have never had a baby - a target group for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

One of my daughters has a friend whose mom put her on the pill when she was about fourteen. When she hit 25 she had a very aggressive cancer in both breasts. It's affected her decisions about having children. Could she leave her husband with little ones to raise alone?

Another risk factor is in the food we eat and the water we drink. Increasingly, fish are turning up in our rivers with confused sexual organs, male fish carrying eggs for example. While estrogen from the pill excreted in human waste is one factor, hormones fed to farm animals is another. Waste products and farm runoff pollute rivers, wells, and reservoirs. In my own county (Shenandoah in Virginia) the river is polluted with birth control drugs. And it's not just affecting women. Increasingly, little boys are born with undescended testicles and low sperm counts caused by a variety of chemical pollutants including birth control drugs.

But is there anyone out there raising the alarm? Darn few! The environmentalists who continually lobby Congress with scares that often prove baseless, apparently have little interest in demanding action over a danger that threatens us every time we turn on a faucet. But then it's more politically correct to penalize an oil company over a localized spill than to go after a behemoth like Planned Parenthood and their pharmaceutical allies who are polluting millions of women's bodies directly and many millions of others through what I'll euphemistically call the "yellow oil" spill.

Women need to hear the warning loud and clear. The pill may not kill you today or next week, but the breast cancer you get because of it may very well kill you in a few years. Even back in the 80s they knew there was a link. My doctor told me it was a good thing I never took the pill because I would probably have had cancer at 29 instead of 39.

One last note. There is a new, very aggressive kind of cancer called inflammatory breast cancer or IBC. Its symptoms are very different from traditional breast cancer. Watch this video warning. Knowledge is a woman's best protection against breast cancer.