Quoted from http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4810771,00.html
Bayer under pressure as birth control pills linked to blood clots
A hormone in some birth control pills made by Bayer may cause dangerous blood clots, studies have found. The pills have been linked to several recent deaths, but a ban is considered unlikely.
Birth control pills containing certain hormones likedrospirenone are twice as likely to cause blood clots - or thrombosis - than older pills, according to two recent studies published in the British Medical Journal.
In Switzerland, a 21-year-old girl died in September after taking a drospirenone-containing contraceptive from Bayer's Yasmin line. In Germany, 25-year old Felicitas Rohrer collapsed in July with three thromboses in her lung. Since 2001, seven women in Germany have died while taking a contraceptive from the Yasmin family.
In total, 130 cases of adverse drug reaction have been reported to Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. However, not all of them are related to thrombosis, Ulrich Hagemann, head of the institute's department of drug safety, told Deutsche Welle.
Bayer denies higher risk factor
Birth control pills that contain the hormone drospirenone are particularly attractive to women since they promise less weight gain and clearer skin. But they also thicken the blood, thereby increasing the risk for thrombosis.
The Yasmin line offers five different contraceptives with the hormone: Yasmin, Yaz, Yasminelle, Aida and Petibelle.