More Lawsuits Looming Over Yasmin Yaz Birth Control

Toledo, OHConcern over the Yasmin birth control pill is mounting, together with the announcement earlier this week of six additional lawsuits against Yaz birth control manufacturer Bayer Health Care alleging various Yasmin pill side effects and misrepresentation.

As reported July 29 in the Toledo Blade, a Pulitzer Prize-winning publication, the six lawsuits filed brings to eight the total number of complaints filed against the pharmaceutical giant in Toledo federal court with regard to the oral contraceptive.

According to the text of the lawsuits, filed recently in US District Court in Toledo, each of the six women affected claim to have suffered serious adverse reactions after using the Yasmin birth control pill, which is a Bayer product.

The lawsuits also claim that Bayer failed to properly advertise warnings with regard to the product, together with failing to warn of potential risks associated with use of the Yaz birth control pill.

The six most recent lawsuits were filed on behalf of five women in the state of Ohio. A sixth plaintiff is a woman from Louisiana. In May, lawsuits were filed by the family of a 25-year-old woman who had been taking the Yasmin pill. Also a mother, the woman died in 2006 as the result of a stroke.

The family believes the stroke was linked to the woman's use of the Yasmin oral contraceptive.

The Yaz birth control pill was introduced to the US market in 2001 and has proven popular given that the third-generation Yasmin product offered a diminished androgenic effect inherent with second-generation oral contraceptives (OCs).

Androgenic effects involve the appearance of facial acne and the growth of unwanted hair. Third-generation products such as Yasmin, developed in the 1980s, were hailed as a vast improvement over second-generation OCs.

However, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen has been petitioning the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2007 to have the Yasmin pill banned. That's because the Yaz product contains desogestrel, which—according to Public Citizen—just about doubles the risk for venous thrombosis (blood clots).

According to Public Citizen research, venous thrombosis in women using third-generation OCs represents 30 cases for every 100,000 women, vs. 15 cases out of 100,000 women using older, second-generation OCs.

It's not just the Yasmin Yaz product that has Public Citizen up in arms. The consumer advocacy group wants all third-generation OCs banned, given three independent studies published as far back as 1995 that found use of third-generation OCs posed twice the risk of blood clots of their second-generation cousins.