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IUDs, Implants Best for Long-Term Birth Control: Study

Posted 4 days ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 23 – New research suggests that long-term birth control options, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and under-the-skin implants, are 20 times more effective for preventing pregnancy than short-term contraceptives, such as birth control pills, patches and rings. "IUDs and implants are very effective; they rival tubal ligation in terms of preventing pregnancy," said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, vice chair of clinical research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Birth control pills work about 90 percent of the time," Peipert added. "When you think about the millions of women taking them, that's a lot of unintended pregnancies." Results of the study are published in the May 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the United States, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned, according to the researchers. That rate is significantly ... Read more

Birth Control Pills, HRT Tied to Digestive Ills

Posted 7 days ago by Drugs.com

MONDAY, May 21 – The use of oral contraceptives by younger women or hormone therapy by older women may be linked with inflammatory bowel disease, new research indicates. Birth control pills are associated with a higher risk for Crohn's disease, said researcher Dr. Hamed Khalili, a clinical and research fellow of gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Crohn's causes inflammation of the lining and wall of the large or small intestine, or both. The lining can become so inflamed it bleeds. Hormone replacement therapy taken by some women after menopause is linked with ulcerative colitis, the study found. It is a disease of the colon (large intestine) or rectum. It causes diarrhea, abdominal cramping and rectal bleeding. Khalili presented the findings Sunday at the Digestive Disease Week meeting, in San Diego. Of the two links they found, Khalili said, the association ... Read more

More Teen Girls Using Contraceptives: CDC

Posted 3 May 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, May 3 – More teenage girls are using contraceptives, which may explain part of the dramatic drop in the U.S. teen pregnancy rate, federal health officials reported Thursday. In fact, the teen birth rate has dropped 44 percent since 1990, to 34 births for every 1,000 females. In 2010, about 368,000 infants were born to teen mothers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We know there have been declines in teen pregnancy, which is wonderful, and increases in abstinence among teens, which is really wonderful also," said report author Crystal Pirtle Tyler, a CDC health scientist. "There has also been increases in contraceptive use." Tyler noted that there has been a 16 percent decline in teens who say they are sexually active. "The majority of teens report never having had sex," she said. To keep teen pregnancy rates declining, teens and their doctors ... Read more

Certain Birth Control Pills May Carry Higher Blood Clot Risk: FDA

Posted 10 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 10 – U.S. health officials announced Tuesday that birth controls pills containing drospirenone – a man-made version of the hormone progesterone – may be associated with a higher risk of blood clots and will require new labels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the updated labels will inform users that the pills – which include products such as Bayer's Yaz or Yasmin – may carry as much as a tripled risk for blood clots compared to birth control pills containing other types of progesterone (also called progestins) such as levonorgestrel. The agency findings came from observational studies, some of which found increased risk for blood clots while others did not, the FDA noted in its medication safety alert. The decision follows recommendations made in December by an FDA-appointed panel that several drospirenone-containing contraceptives carry revised labels ... Read more

FDA Medwatch Alert: Birth Control Pills Containing Drospirenone: Label Change-Products may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots

Posted 10 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

ISSUE: FDA has completed its review of recent observational (epidemiologic) studies regarding the risk of blood clots in women taking drospirenone-containing birth control pills.Based on this review, FDA has concluded that drospirenone-containing birth control pills may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots than other progestin-containing pills. BACKGROUND: Drospirenone is a synthetic version of the female hormone, progesterone, also referred to as a progestin. FDA is adding information about the studies to the labels of drospirenone-containing birth control pills. The revised drug labels will report that some epidemiologic studies reported as high as a three-fold increase in the risk of blood clots for drospirenone-containing products when compared to products containing levonorgestrel or some other progestins, whereas other epidemiological studies found no additional risk ... Read more

Prescription Meds Can Put on Unwanted Pounds

Posted 2 Mar 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, March 2 – Medications taken by millions of Americans for mood disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions can have an unhealthy side effect: weight gain. While other choices exist for some types of drugs, adjusting medications is not simply a matter of switching, said Ryan Roux, chief pharmacy officer with the Harris County Hospital District, in Houston. In the late 1990s, Dr. Lawrence Cheskin conducted early research on prescription medicines and obesity. "Some medicines make an early, noticeable difference, causing patients to become ravenously hungry, while changes are subtle for others. A few months taking them and you've gained 10 pounds," said Cheskin, now director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, in Baltimore. To help increase awareness, Roux and his pharmacist group have compiled a list of "weight-promoting" and "weight-neutral or ... Read more

Contraceptives Work Well in Obese Women, But Hormone Levels Lower

Posted 23 Feb 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Feb. 23 – Hormonal contraceptives appear to thwart pregnancy just as well in overweight and obese women as those of normal weight despite markedly lower pregnancy-prevention hormone levels among heavier females, a group of reproductive experts said. During a media briefing held Thursday by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Society of Family Planning, researchers said few large studies on contraception have included obese women, creating gaps in knowledge about the safety and effectiveness of various methods among this population. About one-third of all American women between ages 20 and 39 are obese, and most of these women will use contraception, said Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president of external medical affairs for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Obesity and unintended pregnancy are two of our major health epidemics, and this is at the ... Read more

Pfizer Recalls 1 Million Packets of Birth Control Pills

Posted 1 Feb 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1 – About one million packets of birth control pills are being recalled in the United States by Pfizer Inc. because of a packaging error that could reduce the effectiveness of the pills and cause unintended pregnancies. The recall of 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets was announced late Tuesday after Pfizer discovered that some blister packs may contain either too many or too few active pills and that the pills may be out of sequence. The expiration dates on the recalled packets range between July 31, 2013 and March 31, 2014. The pills are packaged in blister packs containing 21 active tablets and seven inactive tablets. The packaging error means that the daily regimen for the pills may be incorrect and could leave women without adequate contraception and at risk for unintended pregnancy, Pfizer said in a news ... Read more

More Than Half of Teens Who Gave Birth Weren't Using Contraception: CDC

Posted 19 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 19 – Slightly more than half of U.S. teenaged girls who had a child between 2004 and 2008 did not use birth control, and a third didn't think they could get pregnant at the time, a new government study finds. Although the number of teens who get pregnant in the United States has fallen in recent years, the U.S. teen birth rate is still the highest of any developed country, with more than 400,000 births in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "These are the girls who had risky sex and ended up getting pregnant and giving birth," said study co-author Lorrie Gavin, a health scientist with the CDC's Division of Reproductive Health. "This is the group that we should pay most attention to, because they're the ones who experienced unintended births." According to the report, 50.1 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 who had an unintended pregnancy ... Read more

'The Pill' Can Help Ease Period Pain, Study Finds

Posted 17 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Jan. 17 – There's more evidence that use of the oral contraceptive pill can help ease the cramps, bloating and other pain some women experience during their period. Some previous research, as well as anecdotal evidence, have suggested that the Pill could help women with painful periods, but a 2009 review of all available research concluded there was limited evidence for such a conclusion. The new findings, from a Swedish study that has been running for 30 years, show that women who used the combined birth control pill (estrogen plus progestin) suffered less severe pain than women who did not use the Pill, the researchers said. Their study findings appear online Jan. 18 in the journal Human Reproduction. Experts estimate that pain associated with menstrual periods accounts for 600 million lost working hours and $2 billion in lost productivity in the United States each year. One ... Read more

Weight Gain Often Unrecognized by Young Women

Posted 13 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Jan. 13 – Many young American women fail to recognize recent weight gain, and self-perception of weight gain appears to be significantly influenced by race, ethnicity and birth control methods, according to a new study. The findings are important because weight gain increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and other obesity-related health problems, said the researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. They surveyed 466 women, average age 25, about their weight and other health measures every six months for three years. Nearly one-third of the women did not recognize weight gains of 4.5 pounds during a six-month period, and nearly one-quarter did not recognize weight gains of 8.8 pounds. Those most likely to recognize weight gain were black women and those who used the birth control injection depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, or DMPA. The study ... Read more

FDA Panel Wants More Risk Information on Yaz Pills

Posted 9 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com

ADELPHI, Md. (AP) - Federal health experts said Thursday that drug labeling for Yaz and other widely-used birth control pills should be updated to emphasize recent data suggesting a higher risk of blood clots with the drugs than older contraceptive pills. The Food and Drug Administration's panel of experts voted 21-5 Thursday that labeling on the popular drugs made by Bayer is inadequate and needs more information about the potential risk of blood clots in the legs and lungs. Yaz, its predecessor Yasmin and related prescriptions use a manmade hormone called drospirenone, which mimics the naturally occurring female hormone progesterone. Approved in 2006, Yaz grew into the best-selling birth control pill in the U.S. by 2008, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in TV and magazine advertising that emphasized its ability to clear up acne and other hormonal side effects. But ... Read more

Could Women's Use of 'the Pill' Raise Men's Prostate Cancer Risk?

Posted 15 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Nov. 14 – With the vast increase in the use of the contraceptive pill over the past 40 years, the amount of estrogen entering the water supply may be partly responsible for the increased incidence of prostate cancer around the world, Canadian researchers speculate. Excess estrogen is known to cause various cancers, and the widespread use of the pill might raise environmental levels of the hormone. "Recent studies have shown that estrogen exposure may increase the risk of prostate cancer," said lead researcher Dr. David Margel, a clinical fellow in the Department of Surgical Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and the University of Toronto. "We wanted to explore whether there was an association with a woman's use of oral contraceptives to prostate cancer incidence or mortality," he explained. Although the amounts of estrogen excreted by a woman is minimal, when millions of ... Read more

FDA Medwatch Alert: Birth Control Pills Containing Drospirenone: Possible Increased Risk of Blood Clots

Posted 27 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

[UPDATED 10-27-2011] FDA notified healthcare professionals of release of the final report of the FDA-funded study that evaluated the risk of blood clots in users of several different hormonal contraceptives. The link is provided below. FDA’s review of the results of this study, specifically those results related to drospirenone-containing birth control pills, will be presented and discussed at the joint meeting of the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee on December 8, 2011. [UPDATED 09/26/2011] FDA has not yet reached a conclusion, but remains concerned, about the potential increased risk of blood clots with the use of drospirenone-containing birth control pills. FDA has completed its review of the two 2011 studies that evaluated the risk of blood clots for women who use drospirenone-containing birth control pills. FD ... Read more

More Evidence Shows Newer Forms of 'Pill' Raise Clot Risk, FDA Says

Posted 27 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 27 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it "remains concerned" that a newer generation of birth control pills may raise the odds for serious blood clots more than older forms of the Pill. The announcement concerns oral contraceptives containing a newer type of progestin hormone called drospirenone, which includes Bayer's Yaz or Yasmin. According to the FDA, the new study found a higher risk of venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) – potentially dangerous clots – in women on the drospirenone-containing pills vs. those on older forms of oral contraceptives. The FDA-funded review involved the medical histories of more than 800,000 American women, all of whom were on some type of birth control between 2001 and 2008. The study found that women taking the newer oral contraceptives experienced a higher rate of clots than women on older forms of the contraceptive ... Read more

Related support groups: Birth Control, Contraception, Yasmin, NuvaRing, Ocella, Yaz, Ortho Evra, Apri, Kariva, Beyaz, Gianvi, Reclipsen, Desogen, Safyral, Ortho-Cept

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