Quoted from http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/09/yaz_blood_clots_fda.html
Yaz and newer birth control pills could raise risk of blood clots, FDA says
Published: Monday, September 26, 2011, 6:05 PM Updated: Monday, September 26, 2011, 6:05 PM
By Susan Todd/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
The Food and Drug Administration said preliminary results of an agency-funded study show women using Yaz and other birth control pills with the synthetic hormone drospirenone face an increased risk of developing blood clots.
The early data suggests that women taking the contraceptives face a 1 1⁄2 times greater risk of experiencing the dangerous side effect compared with women using other, older birth control pills, according to a safety announcement posted on the FDA’s website yesterday. The study involved 800,000 women in the U.S.
The FDA is informing the public that it has not yet reached a conclusion, but remains concerned, about the potential increased risk of blood clots for women who use drospirenone-containing birth control pills,’’ the announcement said.
The agency also noted that it plans to meet with two advisory panels in December — the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee — to sort through through some of the conflicting safety data generated by a half dozen different studies of the contraceptives.