Yet another study has confirmed that birth control pills like Yaz and Yasmin are more likely to cause blood clots compared to other oral contraceptives. This latest study, which involved 330,000 Israeli women, found that women who took pills made with drospirenone, including Yaz or Yasmin, faced a 43 percent to 65 percent higher risk […]
Yet another study has confirmed that birth control pills like <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/Yaz-Yasmin-Ocella-Lawsuit-Side-Effects-injury-clots-embolism-dvt">Yaz and Yasmin are more likely to cause blood clots compared to other oral contraceptives. This latest study, which involved 330,000 Israeli women, found that women who took pills made with drospirenone, including Yaz or Yasmin, faced a 43 percent to 65 percent higher risk of suffering a type of blood clot called venous thromboembolism (VTE).
According to a Reuters report, the increased risk associated with drospirenone pills would translate to about eight to 10 clots per 10,000 women per year. The Israeli study also found that the risk for Yaz or Yasmin blood clots increased with age.
An editorial published along with the study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal pointed out that women who take any birth control pill have a small, although higher-than-average risk of blood clots. Dr. Susan Solymoss of McGill University in Montreal, the author of the editorial, wrote that women with risks factors for blood clots, including those who smoke, have high blood pressure or are obese, should avoid birth control pills with the highest risks.
The publication of the Israeli article follows the recent release of a study funded by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) which found that women who use Yaz, Yasmin and similar new-generation birth control pills made with drospirenone may have a 75 percent greater chance of experiencing a VTE compared to those on other pills. The FDA study involved an examination of health records belonging to 800,000 American women using some sort of birth control.
In a Drug Safety Communication issued to announce the safety results, the FDA said it continues to have concerns about the safety of drospirenone birth control pills, but stopped short of telling women to quit taking the potentially dangerous medications. The FDA has scheduled a joint meeting of the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee for December 8 to discuss the safety of drospirenone birth control pills.
The results of the FDA study were released just days after a publication of a Danish study which found that oral contraceptives with new-generation progestins, including drospirenone, doubled the risk of VTE compared to those taking pills made with an older form of progestin called levonorgestral. Not all studies, however, have found increased risks with drospirenone. According to a recent report from The Washington Post, two studies published in 2007, conducted as part of the postmarketing requirements of the FDA or European regulators, did not find any difference in blood clotting between drospirenone and levonorgestral.
