Women who take the birth control pill for 10 years have nearly double the normal risk of developing cervical cancer, but the risk begins falling as soon as they stop and returns to near normal within 10 years, according to a study released Thursday.

The study confirms previous research linking the pill with an increased risk of cervical cancer and reveals for the first time that the risk falls after pill use stops, said Dr. Jane Green of the University of Oxford, who led the study reported in the medical journal Lancet.

Previous studies have revealed a small increased risk of breast cancer associated with use of the pill. But the increased risk for both forms of cancer is small, Green added, and is “outweighed by reduced risks for ovarian and womb cancer.”

The results should “reassure women that fear of cervical cancer should not be a reason to avoid use of oral contraception,” Dr. Peter Sasieni of the Queen Mary University of London wrote in an editorial accompanying the report.

Researchers were interested in the potential persistence of the increased risk because the incidence of cervical cancer in women peaks in their 30s, several years after most women have stopped using the pill.