Tens of thousands of women ’should consider switching pill’

August 14, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

Around three million women in Britain are thought to take the pill to prevent pregnancy, and 100 million worldwide

www.telegraph.co.uk

Tens of thousands of women should consider switching contraceptive pill to reduce the risk of a potentially fatal blood clot, according to a pioneering study.

In the first study claiming to conclusively rank the health risks associated with the different types of contraceptive pill, researchers found that some raised the chances of developing clots like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) by twice as much as others.

While all types of the oral contraceptive increase the risk of a clot, some combinations of hormones are worse than others.

Researchers warn that many women are not using the safest type to minimise their chance of clots like DVT, a blood clot in the leg or the lungs.

The study found that “second generation” pills first used in the 1970s, such as Microgynon, which contained low levels of the female sex hormone oestrogen combined with a second hormone levonorgestrel, were the safest.

Newer “third generation” pills, which have been available since the 1980s, which contained a hormone called desogestrel, carried twice the risk of DVT than the second generation medication.

The study also found that pills with higher or “standard” doses of oestrogen were also linked to an increased risk.

Prof Frits Rosendaal, of the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who led the study, said that although the over all risks were small, about one in 1,000 years spent using the pill, they should be considered when choosing a pill.

Around three million women in Britain are thought to take the pill to prevent pregnancy, and 100 million worldwide.

Prof Rosendaal said: “With such a large number of women using oral contraceptives, even the smallest increase of side effects will affect many.

“Knowledge of these risks and efforts to reduce them are of crucial importance.” Read full article…