New "Beyaz" Birth COntrol Pills?
If you have a product that is ultimately dangerous to the people who use it, wouldn’t you want to either fix what makes it dangerous or remove it from the market?
Most manufacturers do exactly that. If a car is defective, automakers recall it and fix the problem. Or if a baby carriage has a flaw that puts children in danger, the carriages that have been purchased are recalled and those that are still on the shelves are removed. The repairs and changes have to directly address the problem.
For instance, if I were selling a car which had a tendency to deploy the airbags every time it drove over a speed bump, the correct solution would be to fix the problem. An incorrect solution would be to change the color, shape or name of the car while leaving the airbag problem in place.
The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has essentially done just that. A few weeks ago they announced a new birth control pill that is not really new at all. “Beyaz” is an oral contraceptive that contains vitamin b9 and folic acids, which apparently are good for pregnant women. The idea is that once women decide to get pregnant and stop taking birth control pills, the vitamins and folic acids will actually make the process between being on birth control and not being on birth control easier for the woman and more conducive for a healthy pregnancy.
That’s all well and good, but we think that after suffering from a stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism or other blood clot related injuries, a healthy pregnancy is going to be last thing on the minds of the women who use Beyaz.
Beyaz is using the exact same ingredient as Bayer’s earlier birth control pills, which go by the name of Yaz and Yasmin. This ingredient is called drospirenone, which is a synthetic variation of progestin. While Bayer made a very big (and sometimes misleading) deal about its apparent beneficial side effects, which included acne reduction, some weight loss and relief from the more troubling emotional effects of pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, they failed to adequately mention that drospirenone had a tendency to raise potassium levels in the bloodstreams of the women who were using it. This elevated potassium level can lead to deep vein thrombosis, which is the formation of large blood clots in the larger veins and arteries of the leg. These blood clots then break apart, and the pieces travel throughout the bloodstream, eventually causing blockages to the orderly flow of blood.
There have been thousands of cases of otherwise healthy women who have been hospitalized with strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms, and several women have died. There have been thousands of lawsuits filed by women who took these pills in good faith and ended up hospitalized for their troubles. And the key to all of this misery was the drospirenone in the pills. So now, even after all of the injuries and deaths and hospitalizations and lawsuits, Bayer has decided to give us another pill with the exact same ingredient, except this time it has extra vitamins.
While there have been hearings in front of the Food and Drug Administration regarding Yaz and Yasmin, the points of argument have been about misleading advertising rather than the obvious health risks to which women are being exposed. But the FDA is surely aware of the number of hospitalizations, so it is beyond us as to why they would have allowed a “new” version of this pill on to the market. And we are further puzzled as to why Bayer would continue to make, market and sell a pill that puts women at risk.
Greenberg and Bederman is a personal injury law firm located in Silver Spring, Maryland. We are currently offering legal assistance to women in the Washington, D.C. area who have been injured due to the use ofYaz, Yasmin, or Ocella. We have offices in Baltimore as well. We can help anyone in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. If you or a loved one has been injured due to the use of Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella or Beyaz, contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free legal consultation today.
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I just took a month and nine days of Beyaz and was in the hospital with extreme bleeding, cramps, clots and feeling faint. Please warn people to not take this medication. My first period on this medication was also very heavy, then all of a sudden this happened.
I have taken Beyaz for a month as well as when my period came I did't go off until maybe 2 weeks. I usually have a 3 to 4 day period and so far I have been on for 14 days and counting.
I've just started my second month of Beyaz and I've been perfectly fine. My mood has improved, I've lost 10 pounds, and I feel great! My mom is a nurse ao she checks my potassium levels regularly, and so far so good!