Risk of Blood Clots Trigger FDA’s Review of Birth Control Pills

Following reports from two new studies claiming that birth control pills containing the progestin hormone, drospirenone, are more likely to pose a higher-than-expected risk of serious blood clots, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety review of all drospirenone-containing birth control products.

The expressed concern over drospirenone, which can be found specifically in Bayer Pharmaceutical’s Yaz, Yasmin, Beyaz and Safyral birth control pill brands, prompted the FDA to commission an 800,000-person study in order to formally review the risks.

According to studies published in the BMJ, women taking the drospirenone-containing pills had a two to three times greater risk of blood clots compared with women taking pills containing a different type of progestin. Given the fact other studies have reported conflicting results, the FDA wants to conduct their own review, the results of which are expected this summer.

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