My daily news feed had an article with the above headline that caught my attention. What exactly is “oestrogen” and why has it started causing cancer in young women? The article offers the following explanation:
“The hormone oestrogen could be fueling head and neck cancers in young women, explaining why the disease is on the increase in that group, a US team says.”
This left me confused. It doesn’t really explain why “the disease is on the increase.” The whole premise of the article is that oestrogen is causing cancer. The logical question would be “what has caused this apparent increase in oestrogen that is causing the cancer?”
Alas, the article doesn’t answer that obvious question. It doesn’t even raise it as a question. So, I did a quick Google search on this mysterious cancer-causing hormone. It turns out that oestrogen is the main ingredient in the oral contraceptive pill. Who would have thought it?
It seems like the more correct headline would have read “Contraceptive Pill May Fuel Oral Cancer in Young Women.” I wonder why they didn’t just come out and say that. If a chemical taken by millions of women turns out to cause cancer, the media would want people to know, right?
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By the way, isn’t there a chance that oestregen is in other products as well. HPV is also known to cause cancer (doesn’t seem to matter where) so how can your message just state that contraceptive pills are the only thing causing it – without really saying what is causing it?
I don’t mean to imply that the contraceptive pill is the only possible culprit here. I just found it odd that the article would assert that “increased oestregen levels” are causing cancer and then not go on to explain anything about oestregen, like what it is or where it comes from.