subject: Blood Clots - Are Your Birth Control Pills Killing You? [print this page] What is the third most common cause of death in the United States? Pulmonary embolisms - blood clots in the lung - and they're killing 650,000 people per year. What's more shocking is that many women unknowingly subject themselves to this possibility every day because of the birth control pills they take. That's because certain oral contraceptives can cause blood clots that can lead to deep vein thrombosis, which can ultimately cause a pulmonary embolism.
Not All Blood Clots Are Bad - How Blood Clots Are Formed
Blood flows throughout your body in a continuous loop, nourishing your cells and removing waste products. If your blood vessels get damaged or start to leak your blood can clot in order to repair the damage. A thrombus (plural - thrombi) is the medical term for a blood clot.
When a blood clot breaks and migrates to another part of the body it's called an embolus. When, after travelling through the bloodstream, a blood clot plugs up another blood vessel, it's referred to as a thromboembolism.
Generally blood clots are beneficial because they help repair injured blood vessels. However thrombi may be formed inappropriately which cause a problem that can result in illness and/or death.
Blood Clots - the Dangerous Kind
One of the leading causes of inappropriately formed blood clots is oral contraceptives. Within this group of medications studies have indicated that women who take estrogen-containing birth control pills such as YAZ and Yasmine, which are both manufactured by Bayer HealthCare, are six to seven times more likely to suffer a thromboembolism.
In this instance blood clots can be quite dangerous because they can lead to heart attacks, strokes, or deep veinous thrombosis (DVT). DVT is when a blood clot gets embedded in a major deep vein in the pelvis, thighs, or lower legs.
DVTs will block the circulation in these veins. It will prevent blood from flowing from the lower body to the heart.
If deep venous thrombosis occurs it can result in swelling, pain, and a warm feeling in the leg that's affected. Severe complications can occur when a blood clot embolizes - breaks loose - and blocks the pulmonary arteries in the lungs. This is called a pulmonary emobolism and, depending on the degree of blockage, can make it extremely difficult to breath and may indeed result in death.
Most of the 2,000,000 people per year in the US who develop deep vein thrombosis are forty years old or older. Approximately six hundred thousand people are hospitalized for this condition every year.
It is possible that you can prevent this from happening to you by consulting with your doctor about the type of contraceptives you are taking.
