Medicine: Capsules, Jun. 30, 1980

REASSESSING THE PILL'S RISKS

Heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, gall bladder disease, cervical cancer, benign tumors, blood clots, diabetes: all have been linked to the Pill. Now a twelve-year study of 16,000 women in California suggests that the fears about oral contraceptives may be exaggerated. The findings to be published this summer may well be disputed once they are examined by other researchers. But the study's research director, Dr. Savitri Ramcharan, argued last week that "the risks of the Pill, if they exist at all, are negligible."

The study, funded by the National Institutes of...

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