Melanoma and chronic exposure to contraceptives containing micro doses of ethinyl estradiol in young women: a retrospective study from the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) project comprising a large Midwestern U.S. patient population

Abstract

An association between the use of contraceptives containing exogenous estrogen compounds and subsequent diagnosis for malignant melanoma (MM) has been suspected for decades. This is, in part, due to the finding that estrogen stimulates melanogenesis¹ and the observation that the incidence of MM is greater in women vs. men before the age of 50, but lower than men after the age of 50², corresponding with the average age of menopause when estrogen levels dramatically decrease.

Prior studies assessing the relationship between the incidence of MM and exposure to exogenous estrogen provide conflicting results^3-6.

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