I wasn't really aware of it either until later on. I took it from 21 to 49 with breaks for pregnancy, and pop whilst breast feeding. It was definitely more obvious as I got older. I used to get oestrogen withdrawal headaches too, but did not manage to connect it until I got to perimenopause age.
Anyway, we digress
It is a relief that, after many years of very scary warnings, that there are actually some positives, and that they last. I think this is specifically colorectal, ovarian and endometrial cancers, and it is a
reduction of risk, which we know does not mean that we can never get them.
I looked at some papers about this study, written about breast cancer, CKLD. It looks like there
might be a small increase in cancers whilst actually taking it, but these are probably existing cells that are in a position to grow, like with HRT and are not actually caused by the hormones. The numbers were so small that it cannot be called significant and the risk goes when you are not taking it. It doesn't look like you should blame yourself at all
most lumps seem to be the (bad) luck of the draw.