Gems By Norm

It’s a wonder that anyone is still taking the oral contraceptive pill, Yaz. Marketed by Bayer, the pill was presented as a superior version of birth control to other contraceptives. An elusive marketing campaign stated that the pill was designed to “work with your body chemistry.” On three different occasions, a FDA Yaz Blood Clot Warning has chastised the company for making false claims of superiority, when in fact the drug was essentially similar to other oral contraceptives and offered no clinically-proven advantages. What’s worse is that the ingredient that makes Yaz different from other birth control pills, drospirenone, actually poses a serious health risk because it greatly increases the level of potassium in the patient’s blood. Bayer disclosed that information in the drug’s safety literature, but failed to point out that high potassium levels can lead to serious health problems such as excessive blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and thrombosis. After a decade on the market that has been peppered with three FDA Safety Alerts, Yaz has fallen out of favor of doctors and consumers alike.