News Tagged ‘heart attack’
First Yaz lawsuit ordered to mediation for potential settlement
The first of more than 10,000 lawsuits against Bayer over its birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin won’t go to trial this week as planned because a judge appointed a mediator in hopes of settling the case. The lawsuit accused Bayer of misleading women about the safety risks associated with its oral contraceptives.
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.
Blood clot warnings on birth control pills could impact user rates
FDA panel recommends stricter blood clot warnings on Yaz
Packs of Yaz and other birth control pills containing the hormone drospirenone should be updated to include a warning that the pills may be more likely to cause life threatening blood clots than older oral contraceptives, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel. The expert board was charged by the FDA with reviewing new data on the safety of the pills and recommending what action the federal agency should take.
Birth control soon to be free to all insured women
Health insurance plans will soon be required to cover birth control at no cost to women, thanks to new requirements ordered by the Obama administration. The new rules are part of a broad spectrum of women’s preventative coverage and include breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual “well woman” physical, counseling on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, and other services with no co-pay. Insurance companies can recoup any losses by increasing their premiums. The new benefits won’t go into effect for at least another year.
Generic versions of Yaz, Yasmin just as dangerous as brand name pills
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer is facing thousands of lawsuits questioning the safety of its birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. The pills, which contain a combination of drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol, have been found in studies to put women at greater risk for life threatening blood clots than oral contraceptives with other types of hormones. Both Yaz and Yasmin have generic equivalents, which leaves some women questioning whether generic brands are safer than the brand name drugs.
Yasmin birth control pills claim another young life
The doctor who pronounced 24-year-old Tania Hayes dead told her mother Genevieve twice that what caused Tania’s fatal blood clot was Yasmin birth control pills. “Tania wasn’t sick,” her mother told ABC News/Australia.
More women choosing IUDs and implants over birth control pills
More women are choosing contraceptives such as IUDs and implants, according to a study published in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Data shows that using these forms of reversible contraception increased from 2.4 percent in 2002 to 5.6 percent from 2006 to 2008. Public health experts say women are wooed by these types of contraception because they are highly effective and they can virtually be forgotten about once inserted. Alternatively, birth control pills, also known to be highly effective, have to be taken daily.
Mother files lawsuit against Yaz on behalf of deceased daughter
It didn’t make sense to Joan Cummins of Hackettstown, N.J., that her daughter Michelle Pfleger would drop dead. The college freshman died suddenly last fall, which was later determined by medical examiners to have been caused by a pulmonary thromboemboli, or blood clots in her lungs.
Cummins believes it was her daughter’s birth control pills, which she also took for the treatment of acne, that caused her death. She has filed suit against the Bayer Corp., makers of the birth control Yaz, and several of its divisions. The lawsuit was filed as part of a national class-action lawsuit against the makers of Yaz.


