Madrid, Spain, May 21, 2012 / 11:29 am
Women who are smokers and use hormonal contraceptives – whether pills, patches or rings – are at greater risk for blood clots and heart attacks, according to the Spanish Heart Federation.
A study by the University of Copenhagen published in the British Medical Journal and carried out on 9.4 million women between the ages of 15 and 49, found that users of some method of hormonal contraception are at greater risk for blood clots than women who don’t use them.
The data from the study showed that these illnesses are eight times more common among users of contraceptive patches, 6.5 times more common among users of vaginal rings, and 3 times higher among those who take oral contraceptives.
Another study also published in the British Medical Journal and carried out by the UK General Practice Research Database on women between the ages of 15 and 44 showed that blood clots are more frequent among women who take contraceptives with Drospirenone – a synthetic form of progesterone – than among those who use contraceptives containing levonorgestrel, which is an older type of synthetic progesterone.