A Canadian doctor’s group worries that the large number of lawsuits filed against Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills because of deadly side effects may cause young women to panic and not use contraceptives, resulting in unwanted pregnancies.
Bayer HealthCare has launched another birth control pill packed with the hormone ethinyl estradiol, the diuretic drospirenone, and the B vitamin folic acid. The new oral contraceptive, called SAFYRAL, follows by three months the introduction of Beyaz, a near-identical pill packed with the same active ingredients. Folic acid has been shown to protect unborn babies against neural tube defects if the vitamin is taken regularly by women before and during the first three months of pregnancy.
Just one month after Susan Gallenos began taking the birth control pill Yaz, she nearly lost her life to a stroke. Half her skull was removed to ease the pressure on her swelling brain. She would never be the same again. Her doctors blamed her birth control pill.
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.
The number of lawsuits against Bayer for its top-selling birth control pill, Yaz, has climbed to more than 4,200. The lawsuits allege that Bayer knew its pills put women at risk for blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks, a common side effect with any oral contraceptive. However, nearly half of the lawsuits against Bayer allege that the pills caused damage to the gallbladder and in many instances resulted in gallbladder removal. Bayer dismisses the notion that its pills can cause gallbladder problems and maintains its pills are no more dangerous than other oral contraceptives.
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.
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.
Watson Pharmaceuticals has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Abbreviated New Drug Application for Zarah, its new oral contraceptive pill that serves as a generic version of Bayer’s best-selling birth control pill Yasmin. Yasmin and its generic equivalents sold approximately $97 million in the U.S. for the twelve months ending June 30, 2010.
Last spring, Tara Jones gave into her dermatologist’s advice and agreed to take birth control pills to clear up moderate acne. Doing so almost killed her. “I had a deep vein thrombosis in my leg that broke off into many blood clots that traveled through my heart and into my lungs. If large enough, these clots, called pulmonary embolisms, could cause sudden death,” Jones wrote for BSU Daily.
Choosing a method of birth control is an important decision for most women. There are several factors to consider from cost and convenience to side effects and safety. With so many different birth control pills and contraceptive devices available today, women are encouraged to research their options to find the best fit for their lifestyle.
