My friend has told me the Pill causes cancer.

Is this really true?

Please bear in mind there are all sorts of different female cancers. The Pill makes two of them slightly more likely: cancer of the cervix and cancer of the breast. On the other hand, the Pill makes two other types of female cancer less likely: cancer of the womb lining (aka the endometrium) and cancer of the ovary. These "good" and "bad" effects roughly balance each other out. So an editorial in the British Medical Journal has just declared that overall there is no increased risk of cancer from taking the Pill.