The Oct. 24 article, "Birth control pills beneficial, natural for women," paints a picture of oral contraceptives as benign and beneficial.

It rightly points out that the pill can decrease a woman's risk of ovarian and uterine cancer.

However, it fails to reference the most recent study, "Oral Contraceptive Use as a Risk Factor for Pre-menopausal Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis," published in the October 2006 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

The major findings from this careful analysis of the world literature were that oral contraceptives were linked with a measurable and statistically significant association with pre-menopausal breast cancer.

The risk association was 44 percent over baseline in parous women (having been pregnant) who took the pill prior to their first pregnancy.

The study re-enforces the recent classification of the pill as a Type 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Cancer Research.

In accordance with the standards of informed consent, one would hope that women are being apprised of the potential risk of premenopausal breast cancer prior to commencing use of the pill.