Alarming new research finds contraceptive pill triples your risk of fatal health condition

At least 3.1 million women across the UK take the contraceptive pill every day, and new research into the contraception option has scarily linked its use to one life-threatening health condition, strokes.

We’ve always known that taking the pill increases risk of blood clots and high-blood pressure, the two main causes of strokes, but new research is being done every day to determine just how high that risk is.

The Turkish study, presented at the European Stroke Organisation conference in Helsinki, Finland, this month, found that those taking the combined pill were a staggering three times more likely to have a stroke.

Researchers from the University of Istanbul studied 268 women aged 18 to 49 who had all experienced sudden, unexplained strokes and compared this to another 268 women who had not experienced strokes.

In the group who had strokes, 66 were using the combined contraceptive pill, compared to just 38 in the group who didn’t have strokes.

“Our findings confirm earlier evidence linking oral contraceptives to stroke risk and should prompt more careful evaluation of stroke risk in young women, particularly those with additional risk factors,” the lead researcher Dr Mine Sezgin told the MailOnline.

Credit: Canva

“This knowledge could help guide more personalised contraceptive choices for women,” he added.

A stroke is a very serious medical emergency that occurs when blood flow to the brain is disrupted, usually due to a blockage or a burst blood vessel. It is the third leading cause of death worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals. 

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It comes after another February study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) concluded that “use of contemporary oestrogen-progestin and progestin-only contraceptives was associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke and, in some cases, myocardial infarction [heart attacks]”.

Researchers believe that doctors should warn people of the stroke risk that the contraceptive pill carries when prescribing it.

“Although absolute risks were low, clinicians should include the potential risk of arterial thrombosis in their assessment of the benefits and risks when prescribing a hormonal contraceptive method,” the report said.

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Featured image by: Canva