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?