A million women who take Britain’s most popular contraceptive pills are to be told they risk developing potentially fatal bloods clots.
All GPs have been ordered to warn patients that taking some of the bestselling brands of birth control tablets - including Yasmin, Femodene and Marvelon - means they are nearly twice as likely to suffer blood clots compared to those who use older varieties.
Scientists have found so-called third-generation contraceptives caused 14 deaths a year in France – and now doctors in the UK have been ordered to alert women to the alarming dangers.
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Contraceptive risk: Some of the bestselling brands of birth control tablets - including Yasmin, Femodene and Marvelon - can increase the risk of blood clots GPs are warning
Doctors have also been told not to offer the newer types of pill to those at highest risk.
Britain’s drugs watchdog has written to the country’s 60,000 GPs telling them they must, for the first time, go through a checklist when prescribing the pills.
The aim is to ensure they are not given to women with a higher inherent risk of developing blood clots. And they have been told they should ‘carefully consider’ the risks when prescribing pills.
The move follows a report by the European Medicines Agency, which found that synthetic hormones used in third generation pills increased the chance of developing life-threatening deep vein thromboses (DVT) much more than previously thought.
These newer pills are prescribed about two million times a year. They are popular because they are less likely than their predecessors to cause side-effects such as weight gain, headaches, breast tenderness and hair growth.
But GPs have now been told they must fully inform women of the risks of taking different ‘combined hormonal contraceptives’, which contain synthetic versions of the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone.
'I CAN'T BRING MY HELEN BACK'
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The warning has come too late to save teacher Helen Thompson, who last month died from a clot, her devastated widower has said.
James, from Oxfordshire, added: ‘The doctors said all women on the pill are at a higher risk of clots, but they said it was incredibly rare.
'What caused the clot 100 per cent we don’t know, and I don’t want to hurt myself by investigating further.’
A hospital scan revealed a clot on his 28-year-old wife’s brain, but she died within 24 hours of diagnosis.
DVTs, which typically form in the leg, can travel up blood vessels causing a potentially fatal blockage in the lung called a pulmonary embolism. They can also go up to the brain, triggering a stroke.
Risk factors include being older and overweight, smoking or being prone to a type of migraine.
Last night pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which makes Yasmin and Femodene, said it would be making blood clot warnings more prominent on its packets.
Dr Peter Swinyard, chairman of the Family Doctors’ Association, said the advice would change the way he would prescribe pills.
He said: ‘Whereas previously I would have used Yasmin or Femodene as first line because they’re more “lady friendly”, now I probably wouldn’t be as keen.’ However, he said that he would still offer both to patients.
The letter from watchdogs at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which went out on January 22, stated that the risk of developing a serious blood clot from taking any combined pill was still ‘small’ and that any woman who had been taking a particular pill without any problems ‘does not need to stop using it’.
The benefits ‘far outweigh the risk of serious side effects in most women,’ it went on. Being pregnant actually increases the risk of DVT far more than any pill.
But the letter warned doctors that ‘careful consideration’ should be given to each patient’s risk of developing DVT, as well as the different level of risk each type of pill held.
Doctors should ‘regularly reassess’ each woman’s risk and discuss with them of the potential dangers of the pills they were prescribing. Similar letters have gone out to doctors across Europe.
Taking third generation contraceptives increases the risk of clots six times compared to those taking no pills at all.
The annual risk of a woman of childbearing age having a serious blood clot is 1 in 5,000 if she is not on a combined contraceptive pill, it said.
The risk triples to about 1 in 1,700 a year if she is taking one of the older forms of combined pill, and taking third generation pills means the risk doubles again, to as high as 1 in 800.
Previous advice from 2011 suggested that the risk of clots among those taking third-generation contraception was just 1 in 3,000.
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Risk: Scientists have found so-called third-generation contraceptives, such as Yasmin caused 14 deaths a year in France
The European review was prompted by a report from France, which found that from 2000 to 2011, 2,529 cases of serious blood clots – just over 200 a year – were down to combined contraceptives.
Of those, 1,751 (146 a year) were due to third generation pills. These clots led to 20 deaths a year on average, 14 from newer versions of the pill and six from older versions.
The French authorities consequently told doctors to offer the newer pills only if their patients had first tried the old ones – a harder line than the MHRA has taken.
Doctors are still trying to understand the link between the newer pills and serious blood clots – but it is thought that it is the synthetic oestrogen which increases the risk.
The hormones which appear to cause raised risks, are: gestodene, desogestrel, drospirenone, etonogestrel and norelgestromin.
These are present in brands including: Evra Patch, Femodene, Gedarel, Katya, Marvelon, Mercilon, Millinette, Sunya, Triadene, Yasmin and Yaz.
Older and apparently safer forms of progesterone are: levonorgestrel, norgestimate and norethisterone.
Third generation pills were launched in the 1980s and official concerns were first raised about increased DVT risks in 1995.
Dr Sarah Branch of the MHRA said yesterday: ‘Women should continue to take their contraceptive pill.
These are very safe, highly effective medicines for preventing unintended pregnancy and the benefits associated with their use far outweigh the risk of blood clots.’
Dr Asma Khalid of Marie Stopes International, added: ‘Any method of contraception comes with its own benefits and possible side effects, and it’s important that women are given the information they need to make informed choices.’
Beauty queen had stroke at 17
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Georgie Holland was left partially sighted after suffering a stroke at the age of 17.
She had been taking the contraceptive pill Yasmin for two years.
Now 19, she still has limited peripheral vision in both eyes, suffers from headaches and will have to take an aspirin every day for the rest of her life to thin her blood.
Her mother Kim said: ‘After what Georgie went through, I honestly don’t think Yasmin and these third-generation pills should still be available.
'I would warn any parents of teenagers to consider the risks of contraception.’
Mrs Holland, 45, recalled how former beauty pageant winner Georgie, right, spent a week in hospital after she collapsed.
A scan revealed a blood clot in her brain, and doctors linked her stroke to the pill.
‘What happened to Georgie was devastating,’ said Mrs Holland from Kettering, Northamptonshire.
‘She dealt with it amazingly but it has changed her.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550216/Deadly-risk-pill-used-1m-women-Every-GP-Britain-told-warn-threat-popular-contraceptive.html#ixzz2sCvnF8ro
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