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Newer birth control pills are said to have worse side effects than old ones
Are newer pills unhealthy? They should have worse side effects than older birth control pills. But doctors still prescribe them frequently. If you are one of the women with the highest risk of thrombosis, you should not take the new pills!
Normally you should think that "new" and "modern" is also "better". But not so with the contraceptive pill - the result was now a study that presented the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) together with the University of Bremen last Friday in Berlin.
Data from the European Medicines Agency EMA and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices as well as various scientific articles were evaluated for the study.
As the TK illustrates here in a table, there are currently four generations of pills on the market. The older pills of the first and second generation have the active ingredient levonorgestrel. The newer third and fourth generation pills contain the progestins drospirenone, dienogest, chlormadinone, desogestrel or nomegestrol acetate.
The new gestagens, which are included in the third and fourth generation pills, have been specifically designed to work against menstrual pain and acne in addition to contraception, which is the same for old and new pills. However, they have stronger side effects than the older pills:
So there should be a one and a half to twice as great risk for the formation of thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms in the newer pills.
Nine to twelve out of every 10, 000 women suffer from thrombosis and embolism per year statistically, if they take some of the newer pills. For the older pills, there are only five to seven out of every 10, 000 women a year. "In comparison, the risk of disease of women who do not take the pill, in two out of 10, 000, " writes the TK.
In recent years, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices has repeatedly pointed out that there is an increased risk of thrombosis in the case of the new generation of pills containing drospirenone.
But the old pills are also not perfect: The President of the Association of Gynecologists, Christian Albring, pointed out that the risk of thrombosis in the old pills may be lower, but many patients would take when taking these pills intermittent bleeding and permanent Mensturationsbeschwerden. Also, acne or unwanted hair growth occur. That's why doctors often prescribe the new pills: the women simply tolerate them better.
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