British Study Suggests Women on "The Pill" Live Longer

An extensive 40 year longitudinal study shows that women on oral birth control pills should not fret about possible long-term risks with extensive birth control pill usage.

Instead, the recent study shows the opposite: women on birth control pills appear to have long-term benefits, including longer lives.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal and consisted of 46,000 women. The researchers found that these women, each followed for 40 years, had a decreased chance of dying from everything from heart disease to cancer.

This new study may help reassure the 12 million people in the United States the safety associated with taking birth control pills for an extended period of time.