OK, I'm on Diane-35 (BC pill) and on the radio today my mom heard something about it having a five times higher risk of blood clots. I think maybe she's panicking needlessly since she didn't hear the whole story, but she wanted me to post here.

So please, does anyone know anything about different brands of the pill?

Is there one that's safer than the others?

Thanks!
http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/heart.gif *starry eyes*

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"I could live without having erotic nipples... but it wouldn't be fun." --my bf

They all have risks, your doctor probably wouldn't perscripe you a dangerous birth control pill, if there were safer ones out there. If you feel nervous or you seem to feel different, you should read the pamphlet on side effects, and see if you have any.

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Personal Information:
Sex: Male
Age: Under the age of 18
Sexually active

Some pills are said to have a high blood clot risk. Mainly the third generation b/c pills..(You could do reseach to see if yours are third generation). Even with that said, only 25 out of 100,000 will get blood clots from b/c pills (each year). Which is about a .025 percent chance of you getting one, which if you dont know.. is very, very small chance.
Your chances are increased though, if you smoke, or over 35 on b/c pills.
Hope that helps!

Honey, the use of the word 'times' in reference to statistics to be used from clinical studies in prescriptions is a misleading thing.

In other words;

Your chance could be 1 in 1,000,000 or 0.00001%. Multiply that by four. Now i'ts 4/1,000,000 or 1/250,000.

Still not a very big chance.

Don't worry about it. The blood clot risk factors have to do more with age, smoking, and high-bloodpressure. So unless you're a 45 year-old smoker with a resting BP of 160/95, don't worry.

I just heard that this morning on the CBC too. Sounded scarey. They were stressing that it was originally prescribed as an acne medication for the severest of cases and a side effect was that it worked as a birth control method.

They were saying that Health Canada was concerned that Doctors were still prescribing it as a birth control when it hasn't been recommend for that purpose in years. As a matter of fact, the warning states that Diane-35 is NOT authorised for the sole purpose of birth control.

And as far as the statistics go, the chance of blood clots with Diane 35 are 4 in 10,000 (1 is 2,500), which is hundred times more than what Wrin wrote, which is why there is a concern with that particular product. Not all birth control pills are the same. They are NOT equally safe. This particular product carries a much higher risk.

Part of the news report was a comment on the fact that not all doctors are aware of this restriction of use of the product and are still prescribing it as birthcontrol, therefore the warning was issued.

If you want to read more, do a search for CBC Newsworld, Health Matters. Or seach for the Health Canada warning. (I'd link it because it's important, but it would be deleted...)

need to reply to this post for a specific reason...
do a search using diane-35 and check the news option rather than the web option....i rewrote what i found when i conducted a search using that method....

the latest news story states that over 800,000 scripts were written last year, the majority being for birth control rather than for acne as it is the intended use...it was never approved by health canada as a form of birth control but rather for the treatment of acne...the results of a us study concluded that diane-35 increased the risk of blood clots of up to 4 times that of the standard birth control pills....when diane-35 was put on the market back in 1998 it did carry a restriction that the drug was not to be used exclusively for its contraceptive properties...however doctors have been prescribing it for birth control rather than an acne treatment with birth control as a side effect...health canada has now issued notice to the medical profession to remind them of the restriction on the drug and to use it for the treatment of acne, not for the sole purpose of birth control...the company that markets diane-35 is currently under investigation for its possible promotion as a birth control pill rather than its intended use for the treatment of acne....
so perhaps it would be best for you to contact your doctor and have your birth controls pills changed to one that has been approved specifically for the purpose of birth control...chances are very good that your doctor will be more than happy to change it for your...better to have the chances wrin mentioned with standard birth control pills than to have the ones associated with diane-35...best wishes to you on this one!!!

Thanks bfl. While we all want to think our doctors are infallible, this shows they aren't always. Research is often turning up new information; discoveries are made all the time.
However, in this instance it seems to be more a case of the manufacture successfully promoting it's product to doctors as a birth control method while sidestepping the regulatory process. tsk tsk.

Thank you bfl, and everyone else who replied. I will be talking to my doctor on Wednesday, and I'll be switching to another bc pill.

Thanks for your help, everybody!

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"I could live without having erotic nipples... but it wouldn't be fun." --my bf

Thanks BFL for correcting us without being overly authoritative and condescending.

Anyone asking about risks involved in prescriptions must be aware that they are just that -- RISKS! And the placebo effect dictates that the more side-effects we expect, prepare for, and think we're going to get, the more side-effects we'll suffer. If this was untrue, the need for double-blind placebo studies wouldn't exist. So .. if you are young and don't smoke and don't have a family history of hypertension or blood clots, you're probably not at as high a risk, but if you're worried, that in itself can be enough to make you sick -- maybe not a blood clot, but worry has long-ago been proven to be detrimental to our health.

Perhaps you should consider switching, in that case.

I always liked the line in the BC pamphlet that says "the risks associated with pregnancy are greater than those associated with taking birth control pills (except in smokers over age 35)". Kind of puts it in perspective.

[This message has been edited by Thisby (edited 01-17-2003).]