Pulmonary Embolisms a Deadly Side Effect of Yaz Birth Control

The Food and Drug Administration has already had to give Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceuticals corporation behind drospirenone-based birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, a warning regarding their advertising of the oral contraceptive. Yaz and Yasmin were both originally touted as safe, effective birth control methods with added benefits, including properties that could help clear skin and reduce severe PMS symptoms. However, Bayer neglected to mention most of the laundry list of severe side effects the pills have been known to come with, including stroke, gallbladder disease, blood clotting problems such as deep vein thrombosis, and among the most life-threatening, pulmonary embolism.
A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot travels through the bloodstream and lodges in one of the major arteries in the lung. Pulmonary embolism can be fatal, and around 60,000 people die every year due to pulmonary embolism. Although it is unclear how many of these deaths can be tied to the patient’s use of Yaz or Yasmin birth control, it is worth nothing that any of the Yaz or Yasmin-related pulmonary embolism deaths could – and should – have been prevented. A study published by the British Medical Journal in 2009 showed that women taking Yaz and Yasmin birth control as opposed to another hormone-based oral contraceptive were six times more likely to develop a blood clot, and therefore much more likely to suffer a pulmonary embolism as well.
Pulmonary embolisms related to Yaz are caused by two factors, which can either stand on their own or combine to form an extra-deadly combination. Hyperkalemia, which causes excess potassium to be retained in the blood, can cause the condition, and so can hypercoagulability, which is the increased tendency for blood to clot. Both of these conditions have been linked to Yaz and Yasmin birth control as well as other forms of drospirenone-based oral contraceptive.