TAKE THAT, PATRIARCHY: Oral contraceptives linked to increased risk of multiple sclerosis.

Utilizing membership data from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, researchers analyzed the health records of 305 women aged 14 to 48 who were diagnosed with MS or its precursor, clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), between 2008 and 2011. They looked at the women’s birth control use up to three years prior to the onset of MS symptoms.

Overall, researchers found a 30 percent increased risk of developing MS amongst women who had at least three months of oral contraceptive use, compared to a control group of 3,050 women who did not have MS. They found that 29.2 percent of women with MS used birth control before their diagnoses, while 23 percent of women in the healthy control group used birth control– showing an increased risk with higher use of the drug.

There might not be any causal relationship, and a thirty percent increase of a small number is still a small number, but replace “oral contraceptives” with “cell phones” and the press would be all over this.

Laura Wood comments, “We’re supposed to believe that interfering with the complex hormonal system of women is progress. It never ceases to amaze how the enlightened promote the use of oral contraceptives while insisting on pesticide-free broccoli.”