LETTERS: BIRTH-CONTROL PILL LINKED TO CANCER

To the editor:

According to the news, the most widely used steroid for women in the United States makes it 1.9 times more likely that women will die from cerebrovascular disease and 2.5 more times likely will die from cervical cancer. Now add the fact that this steroid will affect a womans body for 10 years after she stops taking them.

The steroid is the common birth-control pill. Contrary to media reports, the birth-control pill is a factor in the deaths of women who have used or are currently using it. According to the British Medical Journal study published last week, a 25 year follow-up study with 46,000 British women found an increase in the mortality from circulatory diseases and cervical cancer among women who were using the pill or had used the pill over a 10-year period. The media and the medical profession applaud the fact that the death risk is reduced 10 years after a woman stops taking the pill.

Women are being told that if they survive the years of taking the pill and then make it through another 10 years, they've escaped the pill's death threat. In most cases the media seem unwilling to reveal this truth. If women could roll the pills and smoke them, the very same harmful side effects would be considered a worldwide disaster.

Why would a drug with these lethal side effects be applauded as a positive thing when the truth of the matter is that women are dying because they are using -- or have used -- birth-control pills. I had a 25-year-old friend who died of a heart attack brought on by her use of birth-control pills. Women are dying from the pill, and no one seems to care.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau