The birth control pill reduced the women's risk of death from bowel cancer by 38%

Women who take the birth control pill are more likely to live longer than women who have never taken the pill, according to a study published Friday in the British medical journal BMJ, the AP/Boston Globe reports. 

Researchers in the United Kingdom followed more than 46,000 women who took the pill and then compared the mortality rate of those women with women who did not take birth control pills. The women in the study generally took the pill for almost four years. Researchers followed the women for about 40 years, beginning in 1968.

The study found that the pill reduced the women's risk of death from bowel cancer by 38% and from other diseases by about 12%. Although the death rate among women on the pill under age 30 was slightly higher compared with the other women, the trend began to reverse by age 50. The researchers noted that they could not offer any theories about cause and effect because they only observed and compared women who took the pill with women who did not.

According to the AP/Globe, past research has found that the pill does not increase the risk of dying, and while it has the potential to protect against ovarian and endometrial cancer, it may raise the chances of breast and cervical cancer.