We BLOGGED twice in April on the dangers to women of the contraceptive pill April 27th and
Reuters have since reported that more new evidence has emerged that women taking Bayer's best-selling contraceptive Yasmin may run a high risk of dangerous blood clots.
Two studies cited in the report showed that users of pills containing drospirenone, one of the hormones used in Yasmin, had a two to threefold higher risk of venous thromboembolism than did users of those containing the older synthetic hormone levonorgestrel, according to two studies in the British Medical Journal.
In the first study, based on U.S. medical claims data, researchers found a twofold increased risk of non-fatal venous thromboembolism in women using drospirenone-containing contraceptives compared with women using levonorgestrel.
Thromboembolism is the medical term for a blood clot in the veins, often in the legs, that gets dislodged and can cause fatal clogging in the lungs' arteries.
The second study, based on data from the British General Practice Research Database, even found a threefold increased risk.
Bayer, not unexpectedly, were critical of the methodology used for the study which they say showed "significant flaws."
Studies assessing the blood clotting risk of drospirenone had yielded inconsistent results in recent years with some studies showing elevated risks and others suggesting drospirenone was as safe as levonorgestrel.
In March 2010, Bayer put additional risk warnings on the European product label for the Yasmin pill but said at the time that the overall benefit-risk profile remained unchanged.
Bayer said in its 2010 annual report that there were about 6,850 lawsuits pending in the United States with plaintiffs claiming they had suffered injuries from Bayer's Yasmin and Yaz pills or generic copies sold by Teva's Barr Laboratories.
In 2010 Bayer realized 1.1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of sales from drospirenone-based pills such as Yasmin, down 13 percent from a year earlier, still making it Bayer's second-best-selling pharmaceutical product after multiple sclerosis drug Betaseron.
Yasmin revenue is slipping because of cheap generic copies on sale in the United States but also in part because of concern about a heightened risk of thrombosis.
Comment;
The damage caused to women's health and fertility by the regular taking of the hormones has never been fully addressed and the partial studies which have taken place are usually resisted and contradicted. Many women are completely unaware that there is a natural alternative which renders the constant taking of hormones unnecessary. The science of NaproTechnology has been developed to such an extent that not only does it assist in the planning and spacing of pregnancies, it is also used to assist many seemingly infertile women to become pregnant thus making IVF redundant.
NaproTechnology is the first women's health science to network family planning with reproductive health monitoring and maintenance. It is a fertility-care based medical approach rather than a fertility-control approach to family planning and gynecological health.
