As a Penn State student who uses oral contraceptives, I was extremely upset by the recent letter to the editor "Birth control pill may have unseen side effects" (Oct. 30).

The misinformation in this letter is troubling. Female students, do not panic: you can keep using your Ortho-Lo.

First of all, the risk association of the pill, in the same study Dr. Kopp cited, is 24 percent, not 44 percent.

Secondly, the statistical relative risk of using the pill is 1.24.

This translates into the 24 percent elevated risk that Dr. Kopp gave us.

However, statisticians will tell you that relative risk needs to exceed three before they consider it truly significant; epidemiologists wait for a relative risk of two. Dr. Kopp's misinterpretation of these numbers is alarming.

Most importantly, however, Dr. Kopp does not mention that birth control pill use may benefit us with regards to cancer risk.

Most pill-using women who get breast cancer detect their cancer at a much earlier stage.

The cancer is more treatable and the woman is much more likely to survive.

So women who use birth control, despite the extra estrogen, are in the long term perhaps safer for their use of birth control.

These are the women who regularly see a gynecologist, who may be more in touch with their reproductive health and thus will detect their cancer sooner.

For shame, Dr. Kopp.

But then again, perhaps I should not have expected accurate women's health information from someone who is a podiatrist.