Elon Student's Death Blamed On Birth Control

Elon Student's Death Blamed On Birth Control
4:45 PM, Jun 5, 2011



Elon, NC -- The mother of a former Elon University student is using her daughter's death as a warning about new-age birth control pills.

It's the hormones in oral contraceptive pills that make them work, but over the years, side effects have become a big concern. Now, a new form of "the pill" may be linked to new problems that can be deadly.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is taking a look at newer birth control pills like YAZ and others that contain a different form of the hormone progestin.

CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton shared the story of Joan Cummins and her daughter, Michelle Pfleger, on The Early Show.

Last August, Michelle set off from her New Jersey home to attend college at Elon University.

Cummins said, "I thought, 'My baby, it'll be all right; we'd go to her room and it would be empty, but I thought, 'Oh, we're going to see her again,' and she never came home."

Just one month into Michelle's freshman year, Joan got a call that changed her life forever.

Cummins said, "They called me from the hospital and they told me that her heart was not responding and that it wasn't good. And that just -- you never want to hear that."

Michelle was walking to class when she collapsed in front of McMichael Science Center and went into cardiac arrest. She died shortly after from a massive blood clot in her lung -- something her mother thinks was caused by the birth control pill YAZ. She's now suing Bayer for wrongful death.

RELATED: Sept. 2010 -- Elon Student Collapses On Campus, Dies

"I'm saying it could've contributed to her death," Cummins said. "A healthy young 18-year-old woman who never had anything wrong to be taken like that, certainly something that could've contributed."

According to Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, there's always been concern that the new generation of birth control, like YAZ, Yasmin, Beyaz, may increase the risk of developing a blood clot, slightly over the old generation.

Regardless of what the FDA finds, for Joan Cummins, the loss of her daughter is enough to want to warn others.

Cummins said, "Instead of her coming home and being part of life here again, she came home and I had to bury her. It's just horrible. I don't want to have anybody I know to have to go through this. It just is not fair."

Bayer says the overall scientific evidence supports its current assessment that its birth control pills are just as safe as any others on the market. The company also says it's working closely with the FDA on this matter.

Ashton said on "The Early Show" the FDA is investigating is a possible link between a class of birth control pills containing a specific type of hormone known as DRSP, after several studies showed there to be a two- to three-time increased risk of clotting events among women taking these kind of pills.

"To put those numbers into context," she explained, "for all women taking all kinds of birth control pills, eight women out of 10,000 will have a clotting event. If this increased risk with DRSP is two times greater, we're talking about 16 women out of 10,000. Now, I spoke to the vice president and the medical director of the Women's Health Division at Bayer, and he told me that the studies do not show their pills to be more dangerous than other pills. Most experts are saying that an increased risk of a rare event is still a rare event."

Blood clotting is a known side effect of all birth control pills, Ashton pointed out.

"It is on the package labeling for all birth control pills," she said. "And, in fact, women who are in any kind of high hormonal state can have a clotting event. So, about 300,000 women in this country every year will have a clot for a variety of reasons. The risk is actually much greater for a woman who's pregnant of having a blood clot than for any woman taking any type of birth control pills."

Ashton, a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist, said any hormonal formulation that contains a hormone known as DRSP is being investigated by the FDA.

She said, "We're talking about pills that have the names YAZ, Yasmin, Beyaz, Gianvi or Ocella. If women are on those pills, they should talk to their doctor, if they're concerned, about options and alternatives. There are other pills on the market that may have lower doses that may have different types of progestin, and they can easily be switched to one of those."

Ashton added some women should not be on any birth control pill.

"For any medication, there's risks versus benefits," she said. "A lot of women take the pill for reasons other than contraception. In general, there can be side effects. Women over the age of 35 who smoke should not take any pill, who have a family history of a clotting disorder should not take the pill, or who have migraines should not take the pill."

WFMY News 2/CBS News

(Oh!) Rob Petrie wrote:Uhh... isn't that a side-effect anyway? Like... didn't we already know this?

Nhaiyel wrote:Tragic, but every birth control pill has warnings concerning things like this. If you take it with all these warnings, the makers are not responsible.

CeCe wrote:

Nhaiyel wrote:Tragic, but every birth control pill has warnings concerning things like this. If you take it with all these warnings, the makers are not responsible.

and I'm not up on all the legalities but it seems there would have to be some kind of negligence or malicious intent on their part. Not defending the pharmaceutical companies & I feel for the mom but think she's out of luck here. You take these things & I imagine you have to accept the risk.