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Aug 2005
creating havoc on several fronts Dina Kok Depo-Provera, an injectable method of birth control, has recently received a health warning from Health Canada.
According to recent studies, women who use the progesterone injection for more than two years have a significant risk of bone-density loss that can be irreversible. The warning follows the findings of two clinical trials of 12 to 18 year olds and 25 to 35 year olds.
Despite health risk warnings and deaths associated with various birth control methods, and the countless forms of birth control already on the market, it seems Canada has not had enough. Earlier this year, the latest form of birth control was introduced onto the Canadian market – the NuvaRing, a once-a-month vaginal ring.
Gynecologist Dr. Nancy Duran, in comments made to Dose, stated, “Side-effects with NuvaRing are the same as you would get from oral contraceptives. But the incidents are much lower because the dose of estrogen is half the dose of regular birth control pills.”
However, according to Jakki Jeffs, executive director of Alliance for Life Ontario, it is not the estrogen that we should be concerned about, but the progestin. “NuvaRing actually admits that the progestin they use has a greater risk of forming blood clots than with other forms of progestin, even with the lower dose.”
In addition to the higher risk of blood clots and side-effects, this latest form of birth control acts as an abortifacient. “Almost as an aside, NuvaRing states that the hormones cause changes in the endometrium, which reduces the likelihood of implantation. This vaginal ring is an abortifacient, and women do not even know,” said Jeffs.
Jeffs continued, “There is no informational data out there yet, especially with women under the age of 16. Yet, they market this drug to them. This is very concerning, specifically for these young women. They have no idea what they are doing.”
Last November, Kathleen Thoren, a mother of three, died after days of agonizing headaches that the coroner’s report said were brought on by the hormones released into her system by Ortho Evra, a birth control patch she had just weeks earlier started using.
In the AP report, though the Food and Drug Administration and patch-maker Ortho McNeil “saw warning signs of possible problems with the patch well before it reached the market, both maintain that the patch is as safe as the pill.”
Some doctors commented that they would have expected to see some deaths related to the patch and that no investigation is necessary. Jakki Jeffs of Alliance for Life Ontario, however, observed that the attitude of the pharmaceutical companies and society seems to be that if, “Women are being made more accessible to guys without the risk of pregnancy ... (so) if we lose a few women on the way to sexual availablity, then so be it.”
– Dina Kok
Terry Vanderheyden and John-Henry Westen Abortion drug RU-486 manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, has admitted there have been five deaths of women using its baby-killing medication, but denies any link between the drug and the deaths. “No causal relationship between these events and the use of Mifeprex and misoprostol has been established,” claimed Danco Labs medical director Richard Hausknecht, MD, in a release. “Childbirth, menstruation and abortion, whether spontaneous, surgical or medical, all create conditions that can result in serious and sometimes fatal infection and there is no evidence that Mifeprex and misoprostol present a special risk of infection,” he said.
The press release came as the company decided to include a label warning, stating that serious side effects may accompany use of the pill, including death. “Danco is working with the FDA to update the Mifeprex labelling, medication guide and patient agreement with this information,” the release said.
“It really boggles my mind that there is never the same reaction, when (a drug) has to do with abortion, as there is with (side effects associated) with other drugs,” stated Campaign Life Coalition spokesperson Rhonda Wood, in comments to LifeSiteNews.com. “Take Vioxx or Celebrex as examples,” Wood continued. “Everyone is up in arms,” about the negative effects of these drugs, as reported by the media. “It doesn’t make any sense at all, that no one is considering the chemical effects on women,” she said.
The abortion pill has been the cause of numerous deaths around the world. Sanctioned in the United States in September 2000, the pill has been responsible for the deaths of at least five women in North America. In five to eight per cent of cases, RU-486 causes severe complications. Danco, the drug’s manufacturer, has reported at least 400 adverse events since RU-486 was approved in the U.S.
Meanwhile, more than 460,000 U.S. women have used RU-486 to kill their unborn children, since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved sale of the drug in 2000. The abortifacient’s manufacturer, Danco, boasted of this in the same press release,
“Mifeprex has been available in the U.S. for almost five years, and more than 460,000 women in this country have chosen it for early abortion since FDA approval in September 2000,” the press release stated.
One day after Danco issued its release, the Food and Drug Administration said it is investigating recently reported, serious adverse events associated with mifepristone (trade name Mifeprex, also known as RU-486). As a result, the FDA issued a public health advisory, highlighting the risk of sepsis or blood infection when undergoing medical abortion using Mifeprex and misoprostol in a manner that is not consistent with approved labelling.
The FDA release noted, “There are now four cases of deaths from infection from September 2003 to June 2005 following medical abortion with these drugs.” (The discrepancy between the FDA death toll and Danco’s may be a result of the latter’s inclusion of a Canadian fatality.)
“The FDA is committed to sharing emerging drug information with the public and we believe it is important to share with healthcare providers and patients the latest, serious reports of infection associated with this drug that we have received,” said Dr. Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research.
The bacteria thought to have caused the fatal infection have been identified in two of the cases. The other two cases are under investigation by the FDA, along with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments and the manufacturer of Mifeprex. Doctors are being urged to have a higher level of suspicion for sepsis in patients who are taking Mifeprex.
Previously, the FDA received reports of serious bacterial infection, bleeding, ectopic pregnancies that ruptured and death. Those reports led to the revision of black box labelling.
This story originally ran as three different articles July 19 and 20 on LifeSiteNews.com.
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Eight years ago, in 1997 when the drug was first marketed in Canada officially as a birth control method, many health groups and pro-life organizations fought its release. Toronto Right to Life, in statements made at the time to The Interim, classified the progesterone injection as an abortifacient that “changes the lining of the uterus,” thereby preventing implantation of a fertilized egg.
As described and advertised by Dose, a daily Toronto commuter paper, the NuvaRing “could be the best ring (a lady) has ever owned.” It is described as a “small, transparent, flexible plastic ring that’s inserted like a tampon, then left inside.” Once there, the ring delivers a slow, steady low dose of estrogen and progestin throughout the next 21 days.
Thoren is among dozens of women mostly in their late teens and early 20s who died last year due to blood clots that are believed to be related to the birth control patch. Dozens of other women survived the blood clots, but have suffered from strokes and other related problems, according to federal drug safety reports obtained by the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request in the United States.
