Women who take the Pill for several years ‘can cut their chance of suffering a common form of arthritis by a fifth’

Women who take the Pill are far less likely to suffer from a common form of arthritis later in life, scientists have found.

Those who use the contraceptive pill for several years in a row are particularly protected – with their chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis dropping by nearly a fifth compared to those who never take the drug.

Some 400,000 people in the UK are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, experiencing severe and painful swelling in the joints. Women are between two and three times as likely as men to suffer from the condition.

The new research, which tracked nearly 7,000 women in Sweden, suggests women who have taken the contraceptive pill at any point in the past are 13 per cent less likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis than those who have never taken the drug.

And for those who have taken it consistently for at least seven years – the average period the drug was taken by the study participants – the risk drops by 19 per cent.

Experts believe the hormones used in the Pill to stop women becoming pregnant are responsible for this effect.

They suspect progesterone – a sex hormone used in the contraceptive pill – has a prolonged anti-inflammatory effect.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis experience inflammation in the cartilage between the joints – most often those of the fingers, wrists and feet.

The joints swell up, become red and painful and movement becomes difficult.

The authors of the new paper, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, believe the hormones in the Pill reduce this inflammatory effect.

Writing in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases journal, they said: ‘In this large population-based case-control study of incident rheumatoid arthritis, with careful matching between cases and controls and extensive exposure information, we found that women who had ever used oral contraceptives had a significantly decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.’

The researchers, however, found no significant link for breastfeeding – a practice that had been previously associated with a protective effect.

The combined oral contraceptive pill is taken by an estimated 3.5million women in the UK.

Women who take the Pill while young are also at lower risk of ovarian, womb and bowel cancer later in life, although they are also have an increased risk of breast and cervical cancer.