Nuns should go on the pill for anti-cancer protection

Lifelong nuns, like all women who never have children, are at an increased risk of dying from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers, compared with mothers. Writing in The Lancet yesterday Roger Short from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Kara Britt of Monash University, Melbourne, call for nuns to be given the contraceptive pill to reduce their risk of reproductive cancers.
New Scientist weighs up the evidence.