A new study shows no convincing association between the overall risk for ovarian cancer and use of fertility drugs. However, researchers do point out that, as many of the study participants have not yet reached the peak age for ovarian cancer, they will continue to monitor the risk.
© AFP/HOFebruary 06, 2009, (Sawf News) - A new study shows no convincing association between the overall risk for ovarian cancer and use of fertility drugs. However, researchers do point out that, as many of the study participants have not yet reached the peak age for ovarian cancer, they will continue to monitor the risk.
During the past three decades there has been considerable debate as to whether use of fertility drugs increases a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer. Previous studies have given conflicting results and concerns remain, particularly for women who undergo several cycles of treatment or who never succeed in becoming pregnant.
So Allan Jensen and colleagues at the Danish Cancer Society examined the effects of fertility drugs on ovarian cancer risk by using data from the largest cohort of infertile women to date.
The study involved 54,362 women with infertility problems referred to all Danish fertility clinics between 1963 and 1998. 156 of these women had ovarian cancer. After adjusting for several risk factors, the researchers assessed the effects of four groups of fertility drugs over an average period of 16 years.
They found no overall increased risk for ovarian cancer after use of any fertility drug. They also found no increased risk among women who had undergone 10 or more cycles of treatment or among those who did not become pregnant.
Although the authors did observe a statistically significant increase in risk of the most common serious type of ovarian cancer among women who had used the drug clomiphene, they stress that this was probably a chance association.
In a society where there is more and more female infertility and later age at birth of the first child, the unfavorable effects of fertility drugs should be balanced against the physical and psychological benefits of a pregnancy made possible only by the use of these drugs, they conclude.
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