The pill and the press: reporting risk

Between 1986 and 1997, nine studies on health effects of oral contraceptives were published by the New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA. All of those studies showed no increased risk of breast cancer or protective effects against ovarian and endometrial cancer. Except for one study published in 1986, the major newspapers in the United States essentially ignored these findings, and The New York Times reported on other inconclusive studies that emphasized an oral contraceptive-breast cancer link.