Women taking oral contraception along with drospirenone are under a severe threat of developing blood clots, or at least the following piece of information suggests so. Two new drug safety studies commenced by the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) assert that consumption of oral contraception with drospirenone heightens the chances of nonfatal venous thromboembolism or blood clots. It was suggested that oral contraception with levonorgestrel is safer than with drospirenone.
Authors conducted the two studies simultaneously by using two different data resources. While one analysis comprised data from the United Kingdom, the other scrutinized information from the United States. In both the studies, participants were women between the ages of 15 and 44 years without and risk factors for blood clots such as a recent surgery, pregnancy or lower limb injury.
“Our data clearly shows an increased risk in women taking drospirenone contraceptives compared to levonorgestrel contraceptives. It is important for women to be informed about the risks and benefits of the different oral contraceptives so they can make informed decisions,” explained Susan S. Jick, D.Sc., director of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program at BUSM and professor of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.
Subjects were provided with drospirenone-containing or levonorgestrel-containing oral contraception and had not experienced a blood clot before. The UK study claimed that women taking drospirenone contraception had a three-fold higher risk of non-fatal blood clots than those on levonorgestrel contraception. On completion of the US study, women taking drospirenone contraception reportedly had double the risk of non-fatal blood clots in comparison to women taking levonorgestrel contraception.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal.