Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it will keep a watchful eye on studies comparing drospirenone-containing birth control pills with levonorgestrel-containing oral contraceptives to determine if one is more dangerous to users. Two recent studies published in the British Medical Journal found pills with drospirenone were two to three times more likely to cause blood clots in women who used them.

Birth control pills with the hormone drospirenone include Bayer’s Yaz, Yasmin, Beyaz and Safyral, as well as generics Ocella, Gianvi, Loryna, Syeda, and Zarah. The FDA says it hopes to have data later this summer from an 800,000-person study it commissioned to examine the risks.

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Two new studies showing an increased risk in venous thromboembolism (VTE), or blood clots in the lungs, in women who use Yaz birth control pills and oral contraceptives with similar hormone formulations, has resulted in a special drug safety notification from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Yaz, made by Bayer, contains the progestin drospirenone. The same hormone is used in Bayer’s Yasmin, Beyaz and Safyral, as well as generics such as Ocella, Gianvi, Loryna, Syeda, and Zarah.

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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.

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Could your birth control pill be affecting your preferences for romantic partners? Researchers say there is evidence that contraceptives alter both a woman’s and a man’s perception of attractiveness. A review of data on the topic was recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution and reported in the Wall Street Journal.

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One-third of all girls in the United States will get pregnant in their teenage years, putting them at greater risk for never finishing high school and for living in poverty. Our country has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and teen births in the western industrialized world, costing us billions in support programs for these young mothers and their children.

National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (NTPPM), recognized throughout the month of May, aims to increase public awareness of teenage pregnancy and help young people develop responsible and healthy attitudes about sexuality in order to enhance decision-making skills that lead to positive life choices.

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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.

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Bayer is trying to silence the critics of its blockbuster birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin by taking nay-sayers to court. But even in Europe where the laws don’t always guarantee free speech, Bayer is hardly getting a sympathetic ear.

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Bayer isn’t backing down. The pharmaceutical giant that is making billions off sales of it’s popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, says two new studies that suggest the company’s oral contraceptives put women at greater risk for blood clots than older generation pills, are flawed.

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Bayer has long denied that its birth control pills, Yaz and Yasmin, put women at greater risk for life threatening blood clots, but a new study published in the British Medical Journal says the “fourth generation” oral contraceptives, which contain the progestin drospirenone, put women at twice the risk for blood clots than those that contain the hormone levonorgestrel.

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Women who take birth control pills with the hormone drospirenone, such as Yaz and Yasmin, are at greater risk of gallbladder damage than women on other oral contraceptives, according to a new Canadian study. The new research involved 2.7 million women who took birth control pills for at least six months between 1997 and 2009. A total of 27,087 women in the study group underwent surgery to have their gallbladders removed. The study found that while all birth control pills put women at some risk for losing their gallbladders, women who use pills with drospirenone were at greater risk.

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