According to recent reports from the University of Aberdeen, oral contraceptive pills are "not associated with increased long-term risk of death."
The UK study was conducted on 46,000 women over the course of forty years, and results found that women who used the Pill "had a significantly lower rate of death from any cause, including heart disease and all cancers," than those who had never used it before.
The results have come with a forewarning, however. Professor Philip Hannaford, who led the study, has noted that women who are under 45 who currently use or have recently used contraceptive pills have a somewhat higher death risk - but this diminishes after a decade and is compensated by the health benefits later on in life.
Hannaford also cautioned that newer types of the Pill may have associated new risks. Only older types of birth control pills were considered, as the study first began in 1968.
Perhaps the most bizarre finding of the study was that women who take the Pill are at a higher risk of accidental death or violence than those who have never used birth control. Researchers could find no explanation for this.