Women on Birth Control Live Longer

In one of the world’s largest studies on birth-control pills, researchers have found that women on the pill are “less likely to die from any cause, including cancer and heart disease,” and live longer than women not taking the pill. The study involved over 46,000 women for nearly 40 years (“more than a million woman years,” as one scientist put it) and reversed earlier speculation that women on the pill were at risk of dying sooner. However, because their study began in 1968, scientists said the data reflects older types of birth control, not contemporary versions of the drug.