In 2005, the International Center for Research on Cancer (CIRC), dependent on the World Health Organization (WHO), classified the contraceptive pill among the carcinogenic products in group 1, in which tobacco and alcohol are also classified. Twenty years after this classification, Internet users have indignant on social networks, claiming that this classification would be proof that the dangers of the pill would be comparable to those of tobacco and alcohol. But this is false: the proportion of cancers linked to tobacco and alcohol is much higher than that linked to oral contraceptives, have assured experts and CIR to AFP.
“Girls are too serious. WHO [l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, NDLR] classified the pill as carcinogenic group 1 at the same level as tobacco or alcohol […] Do you realize dinguerie? It is placed at the same carcinogenic level as alcohol and tobacco! I don’t even know why it is still sold, why it is still given to women“, Indigates an internet user in a video published on Tiktok on June 17, 2025. The publication was shared nearly 60,000 times and viewed 1.6 million times.
“Do you know what makes me crazy, me? It is that I was made to pass for a crazy for three years every time I refused to take the pill when I was prescribed each time as the only treatment against endometriosis, so that it is today finally classified carcinogen, more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol!“, Dress another user on the same platform.
Similar messages also circulate on Tiktok (1, 2, 3), Instagram and X.
In descriptions and comments, Internet users support these affirmations by referring to an article published on August 7, 2005 by RFI, or to this report on contraceptives and combined Estrogenic-Progestifs Treatments of the International Center for Cancer Research (CIRC), published in 2007 (links archived here and here).
If the Circ, dependent on WHO, has classified the contraceptive pill among the carcinogenic products of group 1 in 2005, This does not mean that taking a contraceptive pill is also, or even more dangerous than consuming tobacco or alcohol. Indeed, Even if the pill can present certain health risks, including that of developing certain cancers, this has so far only concerned a very low number of casesand this is not at all comparable to the devastating effects of alcohol or tobacco taking (link archived here).
A misinterpreted classification
In an email addressed to AFP on June 19, 2025, the Circ claims that its program of monographs (that is to say, exhaustive and detailed studies on a specific subject) is only about identifying the identification of dangers Linked to cancer and not on the evaluation of risks (link archived here).
In addition, the identification of dangers makes it possible to know whether a substance can – or not – cause cancer in certain circumstances, but this does not measure the probability that cancer is actually triggering.
“Obviously the pill is not as dangerous as tobacco and alcohol“, He told AFP Philippe Deruelle, gynecology professor and head of the gynecology-obstetrics at the CHU de Montpellier.
Asked by AFP on June 25, 2025, the gynecology teacher explains that “The main risk of the pill is rather metabolic and vascular. In terms of frequency, we are of course much below the risk linked to tobacco or alcohol, and even more on the issue of cancer“.
This is also what this report published by CIR in 2018 indicates, which exposes the risks of cancers linked to oral contraceptives and the attributable share for each cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate the share and the number of new cancer cases attributable to risk factors linked to lifestyle or the environment in adults aged 30 years in mainland France in 2015 (link archived here).
Among the 346,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed, 142,000 would be attributable to the risk factors studied, or 41 % of all new cases of cancer. THE tobacco was responsible for the greatest number of cases (20 %, or more than 68,000 new cases attributable to smoking). Then came thealcohol (8 %), food (5.4 %), and overweight and obesity (5.4 %). Among other factors related to lifestyle, 0.6 % are attributable to exogenous hormones (oral contraceptives and menopause treatment).
“You may see that the proportion of cancers linked to these two risk factors is much higher than that linked to oral contraceptives. […] They represent the first 2 preventable risk factors for cancer“Said the National Cancer Institute (INCA) in an email addressed to AFP on June 18.
For Philippe Deruelle, he is “undeniable“That the pill has undesirable effects,”like all medication” : “In particular it increases the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction and also the risk of metabolic disorders“, Specifies the expert.
“There is never any risk -free contraception”
The most widespread contraceptive method in France, the pill is the first method offered to women. There are two types of contraceptive pills: Estroprogestative combined pills et Les Pilules micro-progestives (links archived here).
Estroprogestative contraceptives were evaluated for the last time in 2008 by CIR, which classified them in group 1, among the proven carcinogenic substances for humans.
Depending on the volume 100A of CIR monographs – published in 2012 in English – there is enough evidence noted on the human organism demonstrating that oral contraceptives, combined estrogen -progestin, can cause certain cancers: breast cancer, cervical cancer (in situ and invasive), as well as liver cancer. However, the report stresses that the use of these contraceptives is associated with a reduction in the risk of cancer of the endometrium, the ovaries and the colon-rectum (links archived here and here).
As for progestin -based contraceptives alone, they were classified in group 2B in 1998 in volume 72 of Circ monographs, which means that they are possibly carcinogenic for humans. However, during a recent meeting of the advisory group, responsible for defining the priorities of the monograph program for the period 2025-2029, a re-evaluation of these pills was proposed (links archived here and here)
According to the report of this meeting, available in English to the contraceptive reference 092 on page 158: “Several solid epidemiological studies show, in a coherent way, that an increased risk of breast cancer and a reduced risk of ovary cancer are linked to the use of progestogen -based contraceptives alone“. “Emerging evidence shows an association with increased risk of brain tumor linked to the use of contraceptives only based on progestin“, Adds the report (link archived here).
According to Philippe Duruelle, “There is never a risk -free contraception […]. The risks are diverse depending on the method we choose. The pill is a very good way of contraception, but which is not suitable for all women“.
The expert recalls that this kind of studies are difficult to conduct because “An individual is never exposed only to one thing in his life. To do this, it would be necessary to have individuals who are exposed only to the pill, versus others who are exposed to steps of pill, and then who have more of that, and really the same profiles of history“.
Although social networks are “An excellent source of information“, The head of the gynecology-obstetrics at the Montpellier University Hospital indicates that it is necessary to verify the skills and qualifiers of the person who transmits them:”It is often important, especially in medicine, to go and put the positive elements and the negative elements, because in medicine, nothing is neither all black nor all white“.
The WHO invites the public to consult a list of questions answers here on the monographs of the IARC on the identification of carcinogenic dangers for the human being (link archived here).
