Yaz and Yasmin - And A little History on Birth Control
Yaz Health Alert
The birth control pill was first approved for sale and marketing as an oral contraceptive in 1960. The release of this pill did not pass unnoticed. Since the passing of the Comstock Laws in 1873, the sale of any method of birth control device, be it a condom, IUD or diaphragm, was illegal. Even by the mid-1950’s these laws were still on the books in thirty states, which, combined with the cultural philosophies of the times, left women in very narrow personal and professional roles. A life of marriage and child rearing was considered the true calling for all women, both due to societal pressures and the laws on the books. In Massachusetts and Connecticut for example, the use of any form of birth control was punishable by fines or prison terms.
The company that released Enovid was so terrified of a boycott by Catholic Americans that they initially marketed it as a treatment for menstrual disorders rather than a pill that prevented pregnancy. But it was the sort of marketing that was done with a wink and a nod, and within two years the number of women who were taking Enovid was at 500,000.
In May of 1960 the FDA allowed Enovid to be marketed solely as a contraceptive, without the socially acceptable camouflage of menstrual problems providing cover against the Catholic Church and others who fundamentally disagreed with the notion of birth control.
It can be said with certainty that the birth control pill altered practically everything about gender dynamics in the United States. Women were no longer at the mercy of biology. Women could develop careers without worrying about having to leave them before they were ready. Women could have children when they wanted to as opposed to having them whether they liked it or not.
To be sure, these changes did not happen overnight. But if you compare the lives of women today with the lives of women in the 1950’s, one era is practically unrecognizable to the other. And the enormous differences that exist began to develop once women began to have access to birth control.
But while Enovid was a breakthrough, you have probably noticed by now that it is no longer available. The reason for this is that the doses of hormones that made Enovid work were much higher than they needed to be. Enovid contained a staggering ten milligrams of progesterone to stop ovulation. One particular doctor described it as “…using a sledgehammer to drive a nail.” As a result of this high dosage, many women began to suffer serious side effects, which were half-heartedly acknowledged by the company that was manufacturing and selling the drug:
“…an occasional woman receiving Enovid may experience psychic depression, although the relationship of Enovid administration to such a response is by no means clear.”
Since Enovid sold incredibly well, it wasn’t long before other pharmaceutical companies began to develop their own versions of oral contraceptives, all of which drastically lowered the dosage of progesterone, and the two working ingredients of birth control pills have remained mostly unchanged to this day.
Birth control pills use hormones to essentially fool a woman’s body into thinking that it is already pregnant. The pills do this by releasing an approximation of the same hormones that are released by the placenta during pregnancy. Estrogen and progestin travel through the bloodstream to the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. The estrogen prevents the follicle stimulation hormone from occurring, which keeps the uterine lining from thickening. The constant level of progestin keeps the luteinizing hormone from spiking, which prevents ovulation from occurring. So essentially, no egg is produced, and even if there were, the cervix has been turned into an inhospitable place for male sperm.
This formula is profoundly effective, and even though there are some side effects from taking birth control pills, the vast majority of them are minor:
- Weight Gain
- Nausea
- Sore or Swollen Breasts
- Spotting Between Periods
- Lighter Periods
- Changes in Mood
A miniscule minority of women who use regular birth control pills have experienced side effects that are more serious in nature. These include:
· Abdominal pain (stomach pain)
· Chest pain
· Headaches (severe)
· Eye problems (blurred vision)
· Swelling and/or aching in the legs and thighs
In some cases, these side effects are indicative of something much more serious, such as blood clots, stroke or heart disease.
So the basic arithmetic of any pharmaceutical company that follows the same formula of estrogen and progestin is that for every one user of the product who develops serious complications, there are hundreds of thousands of women who use it with nary a twinge, which means that the good of the product far outweighs the bad. And the birth control pill is hardly the only pharmaceutical product that carries the same risk to benefit ratio. If you watch any pharmaceutical advertisement on television, it seems that at least the last ten seconds of the ad are always dedicated to potential harmful side effects or risks.
But what has happened recently is that a big pharmaceutical company altered the tried and true formula for oral contraceptives in the hopes that they could also tackle a few of the minor side effects, and even take care of some problems completely unrelated to birth control use. And in doing so, it seems that the risk to benefit ratio has altered in a profoundly negative way. Read about yaz side effects.
The pill in question goes under the name of Yaz, and in an eerily similar fashion, it is being marketed in almost the same way that Enovid was before it was approved strictly as a contraceptive. Yaz (as well as its sister product Yasmin) is trumpeting itself as a birth control pill that also prevents pre-menstrual disorders and mood swings as well as acne.
In order to achieve these peripheral benefits, the Bayer Corporation has been using a synthetic variation of progestin that is called drospirenone. While progestin itself has been known to cause blood clotting and other severe side effects, Bayer’s use of drospirenone as a substitute has apparently raised the risk level of these effects to exponential levels. Drospirenone has been shown to raise the blood potassium levels of users, which makes the potential for clotting much more likely. Blood clots can and will travel to the brain, which could cause a stroke, or to the lungs, which could cause pulmonary embolisms, or to the heart, which could cause a heart attack. Constant high potassium levels can also cause severe damage to the kidneys and gall bladder.
The added risks aren’t mere speculation. The FDA actually forced Bayer to spend $20 million to re-do an entire advertising campaign due to the fact that:
“..The TV Ads are misleading because they broaden the drug's indication, overstate the efficacy of Val, and minimize serious risks associated with the use of the drug.”
Since Yaz and Yasmin have been put out on the market, more and more people have been coming forward with stories of real harm done to themselves or their loved ones, and as a result of these injuries more and more people are turning to our legal system for help.
The first of these lawsuits were filed in July, and there will certainly be more to come. Bayer has expressed precious little interest in removing the pills from the market, and considering that the Yaz line of birth control is one of their biggest sellers it’s hard to see why they would unless they are forced to.
Greenberg and Bederman is a Washington, D.C. based law firm that is currently assisting those who have suffered serious and harmful side effects from the use of Yaz or Yasmin birth control pills. If you or a loved one has been injured due to Yaz or Yasmin side effects, contact Greenberg and Bederman to speak to a yaz lawyer today.
To learn more about yaz, yasmin, or oscella dangers, please vist our website and click on the yaz page, or go to our youtube site and watch our yaz attorney video.
To learn more about yaz side effects, please read our yaz page. To learn more abour our yaz lawyer, Andy Bederman, please read yaz bio or watch his yaz lawyer video.
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