Some women
using hormonal contraceptives other than birth control pills may have an
increased risk for serious blood clots, Danish researchers report.
These
alternate hormone-releasing birth control methods include skin patches,
implants and vaginal rings. To reduce the risk, women
who use this should
consider switching to the pill, the researcher said.
Deep vein
thrombosis is a kind of clot that typically originates in the legs and can
travel to the lungs, where it becomes an often deadly pulmonary embolism. Both
types of clots combined are called venous thrombosis, according to the study,
Symptoms includes leg pain, chest pain or sudden shortness of breath.
“The
transdermal patch and vaginal ring confer at least a six fold increased risk of
venous thrombosis as combined pills with desogestrel or drospirenone, a risk
which is about twice the risk among women using second-generation pills with
Levonorgestrel,” said Lidegaard, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology of
the university of Copenhagen.
However,
hormone-releasing intrauterine devices (IUDs) do not increase the risk of
venous thrombosis, he said.
“Women
should be informed about these risks in order to be able to choose the most
appropriate hormonal contraceptive product,” Lindegaard said.
“There are
hormonal contraceptive alternatives which confer less or no risk of venous
thrombosis.”
Common implants
include implanon and the newer Nexplanon; ortho Evra is the patch and the ring
is Nuvaring. These products gradually release hormones into the body to prevent
pregnancy. The findings were published May 10 in the online edition of the BMJ.
The
researchers found that between 2000 and 2010 there were more than 3,400
diagnoses of venous thrombosis.
For women
who did not use any type of hormonal contraceptive, two women developed clots
for every 10,000 (combined) years they used contraceptives.
For women
taking the pill containing the hormone Levonorgestrel, the risk for a clot was
three times higher, or 6.2 clots for every 10,000 years they took the pill, the
researchers found.
The risk to
women who used a skin patch was about eight times higher, or 9.7 clots per
10,000 exposure years.
Women who
used a vagina ring had a 6.5 times higher risk, or 7.8 events per 10,000
exposure years.
For women
who used an implant that contain only progesterone, the increased risk for
clots was very small. There was no risk for women using a progesterone-only IUD
and it may have has a protective effect, the researchers noted.
Source; New York Times News Services
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