The story from A Current Affair that just aired tonight on the dangers of some contraceptive pills, particularly those known as Yaz, Yasmin, Estelle, & Diane-35.
A revolution or potentially life-threatening risk nearly one third of australian women at reproductive age are on the contraceptive pill not all pills are the same though some may cause potentially fatal side effects i woke up one morning with really to be pain down my right arm blood clots is one of the risk factors of going on the pill women that have had these
Sort of problems have been hospitalized for weeks at a time for most women the contraceptive pill has been nothing short of revolutionary but for some this miracle of modern medicine has a potential darkside it was the pain i think and actually just visually looking at it that made me realize that perhaps this was quite serious heidi sayers was holidaying in the
Us when she woke up with one arm swollen and turning blue she saw two doctors both told her it was just a sprain so she boarded the plane to come home she was lucky to make it i was rushed straight through emergency straight through to a team of doctors who first question us was are you on the contraceptive pill i answered yes and they said well you’ll be off that
Immediately and started treating me with aleksei injections these are the letters from my specialist heidi had a blood clot blocking a vein in her right arm her doctors believe that the contraceptive pill she had been taking for four years estelle 35e d and played a significant role in its formation it was the doctors that that had said most likely that that the
Pill has contributed to this you have no family history i’m not a smoker there’s really you know no other reason that we can that you know i can see as to why it happened so what was some of the treatment life that you had to go through i was on 90 milligrams clec saying which i had to inject into my stomach every morning how are you with needles normally i was
Terrified of needles heidi was on the blood thinner warfarin for six months a keen surfer she had to put her board away while she recuperated being extremely fit healthy active i take really good care of my body that how had this actually and to me would you have ever gone on the pill if you knew that it could cause something like this no way i would not have
Taken it absolutely not heidi’s pill of choice estelle which also trades under the name diane has been pulled off the market in france here in australia the tga has updated its safety advisory to acknowledge the risk of thromboembolism or blood clots in these products and there have also been concerns over a different set of combined pills caning dress paranoid
Audience and yasmin although the tga has no plans to restrict their availability i felt like someone was stabbing me in my lung at the front and the back at the same time every time i was breathing 42 year old perth mum trained creamer had been taking yaz for a year when doctors found multiple blood clots in her lungs i feel i’m very lucky i’m still here to be with
My kids any woman on the contraceptive pill has an increased risk of blood clots but if you’re on a combined pill like yaz or yasmin your risk is increased again and now for the first time in australia there’s plans for a potential class action to date we’ve had in excess of 500 women contact us who have been significantly affected tim white is a partner at tyndall
Gask bentley the adelaide law firm working up australia’s first class action against bayer the makers of yaz and yasmin the more serious complications have involved strokes heart attacks pulmonary embolism we’ve been talking with lawyers internationally particularly in the united states where a number of the lawyers that we’ve been dealing with had great success
With settling claims against bayer a couple of studies saying that there’s an increased risk in something is not the reason to stop taking medication dr. gina picaro says that if you’re on one of the combined contraceptive pills then there’s no need to hit the panic button however there are some women who are at greater risk of blood clots if you’re overweight
You don’t exercise or you smoke we would certainly not encourage you to be on a he’ll women who are at risk for blood clots be that because they have a familial tendency those women shouldn’t be on the pill it’s about six months until i got back in the water and had my first surf again how did that feel amazing heidi was one of the lucky ones back in the water
And fighting fit a lifetime of regular appointments with the hematologist ahead of her she’s speaking out in the hopes that other women won’t have to suffer i know that there’s a plenty of other women that haven’t been as lucky and i would just hate for anyone else to have to go through what i went through go back and speak to your doctor and say is this still
The best method of contraception for me or is there something that has lower risks in this particular area or is it simply time to change to something else and bare the maker of years and yasmin say they take the safety of their medicines very seriously and will vigorously defend any class action that may be brought against them you can read their full statement on our website
Transcribed from video
ACA story on contraceptive pills By roleypup
