14 DAY TRIAL // A report recently issued by the National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products in France argues that roughly 20 women living in this country are killed by contraceptive pills on a yearly basis.
Medical researchers explain that oral contraceptives can cause women to develop blood clots, and that the latter are the ones that can ultimately translate into a woman's suffering either a pulmonary embolism or similar accidents and dying.
Sources say that, as far as said agency is concerned, third and fourth generation contraceptive pills are the ones most likely to cause potentially deadly blood clots to form.
Thus, it appears that 14 out of the 20 yearly deaths linked to oral contraceptives came as a direct result of the women's taking third and fourth generation pills.
On the other hand, just 6 deaths are believed to be caused by first and second-generation contraceptive pills.
Therefore, it should come as good news that, over the past few years, an increased number of women in France have been turning towards first and second-generation pills rather than continue taking third and fourth-generation ones.
The same report shows that, as several surveys have shown, roughly 2,500 of the women living in France suffer a blood-clot-related accident each year, yet manage to survive.
For the time being, France is listed as one of the world's highest users of contraceptive pills. More precisely, it appears that, in 2011 alone, approximately 4.27 women living in this country made use of contraceptive pills.
Because of this, the National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products wished to stress the fact that, when the country's entire population is considered, the risk of dying as a result of a contraceptive pills-induced blood clot is a relatively low one.
“The risk of venous thromboembolism applies to the population as a whole but the risk is low,” the researchers says. Furthermore, “It increases with age for all women, regardless of whether they use oral contraceptives or not.”