Estro-progestin Contraceptives and Risk of Cervical Cancer: A Debated Issue

Abstract

Steroid contraceptive hormones may promote human papilloma virus (HPV) - DNA integration into the host genome, may bind to specific HPV-DNA sequences within transcriptional regulatory regions, and may modulate cell apoptosis. Most epidemiological studies, reported in this narrative review, have shown that oral contraception is associated with a 1.5-3.3-fold higher relative risk of cervical carcer, but only in users for >5 years and especially in HPV-positive women. The relative risk declines with increasing time since last use and is not different from that of never users after >10 years. Ten-year oral contraceptive use from the age of 20 years is associated with an increase in the cumulative incidence of invasive cervical cancer at the age of 50 years of approximately 1 case per 1,000. Oral contraception has a very small negative impact on the absolute risk of cancer of the uterine cervix.

Keywords: Oral contraception; cervical cancer; estrogen; human papilloma virus (HPV); progesterone; review.