Experimental contraceptive zaps sperm count in rats
Male contraception may be as easy as a couple zaps of ultrasound to the testicles, according to a new study published in the journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology.
News Tagged ‘birth control’
Women should be aware of blood clot risk with birth control pills, patches
The recent recommendations from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee about safety concerns with contraceptives may make women more leery when deciding which birth control is best for them. But even for women who are currently on birth control, understanding the risks is vital.
Birth control called ‘secondary cause of death’ in young woman taking Yaz
It was mere hours after Rebecca Bapp called her parents to say that she wasn’t feeling well that the 21-year-old was dead. Mysteriously, her health declined so rapidly even doctors were baffled by what was making her so ill. Not long after her parents rushed her to the hospital, she was placed on a breathing machine and sedated. She coded three times before she gave up her fight for life.
Scientists working on birth control device for men
For women, choosing a birth control method is complicated. For starters, birth control pills carry a frightening list of warnings on their safety labels. While the risks are considered remote, it’s hard to trust drug companies when they say their medication is safe. Just look at the thousands of lawsuits drug maker Bayer is facing over its top-selling oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin. The lawsuits claim the pharmaceutical company didn’t warn users that they were at even greater risk for deadly blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
It’s time women put the burden of contraception on the men.
Doctors blame woman’s blood clots on Yaz birth control
Six months ago, Lucy* was released from the hospital. Just months after starting Yaz birth control pills, the young woman was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism (PE), gallstones, and an unknown growth on her adrenal gland. “The doctors told me Yaz was the reason for the PE and that I was very lucky,” she wrote to a community board on Yaz on Medications.com. “I work in a hospital and had no knowledge of these problems until I entered the ER by ambulance on Saturday.”
Deceptive ads lead to two more lawsuits against makers of Yaz
Two more women have filed lawsuits against the makers of Yaz birth control, alleging they were seriously injured after taking the oral contraceptives. They claim had they known the dangers associated with Yaz, they would have never risked their life by taking that type of birth control pill. Amie Nardone and Lauren Powell, both of New Jersey, say Yaz caused them to suffer gallstones and a blood clot, respectively.
NJ woman files lawsuit against makers of Yaz birth control
Carole Ann Grohan says she never knew taking Yaz birth control pills could put her life at risk. Instead, the New Jersey woman bought into the flashy commercials about how the oral contraceptive helped clear complexions and protected women from the nasty side effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
Carole Ann wasn’t the only woman swayed by the playful advertisements – Yaz soon became the best selling birth control pill in the nation. However, Carole Ann found out the hard way that women like her were being fooled by Bayer Healthcare, the makers of Yaz. She suffered a blood clot in her lungs, known as a pulmonary embolism.
Yaz likely cause of girl’s damaged gallbladder
When Katie Ketner was 15, she met with a gynecologist about birth control. The doctor told Katie that Yaz “helped people regulate their menstruation, helped people control their acne, and things like that,” Katie remembers. The ads for Yaz were everywhere then, colorful commercials with smiling women praising the pill that not only prevented pregnancy, but also squashed irritability and moodiness associated with premenstrual syndrome as well as cleared up bothersome acne. It was an easy sale for Katie.
New birth control pill contains folic acid, but is the B vitamin ‘all that’?
When the Food and Drug Administration approved for marketing a version of Bayer’s Yaz birth control pill fortified with folic acid, known as Beyaz, the public took notice. Why pack a vitamin shown to reduce birth defects of the brain and spine in a pill that prevents pregnancies? The answer was that while the pill has a 99.9 percent effective rate, not all women take the pill perfectly.
But folic acid also offered other benefits, some experts claimed. Since folic acid lowers blood levels of the protein homocystine, which is linked to heart and blood vessel disease and other medical problems, some scientists suggested that the B vitamin could also lower the risk of heart disease, stroke or cancer.
CFO blames Yaz for her life-threatening blood clots
You’d be hard pressed not to call Gina Miller healthy. The chief financial officers of an Indianapolis company and mother of three young children still made time to run up to 35 miles a week. But her active lifestyle came to an abrupt stop shortly after she began taking the birth control pill Yaz.