These are the contraceptive pills with a higher blood clot risk than the AZ vaccine

The risk from most pills is around 100 times greater than the risk from the Oxford vaccine

3 years ago

Most contraceptive pills have a blood clot risk around a hundred times greater than the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, statistics show, after fears over blood clots led the UK to push young people towards alternative jabs.

Although the Oxford/AZ vaccine hasn’t been banned for under 30s, it has been recommended that young people are given a different vaccine where possible.

But experts and women everywhere have been quick to point out that millions take contraceptive pills with much higher blood clot risks than the vaccine.

The Tab has compiled a list showing that the risk of most contraceptive pills compared to the AZ jab.

These are the pills with a higher blood clot risk than the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Oxford/AZ vaccine: 0.0395 in 10,000
Yasmin: 9-12 in 10,000
Levest, Microgynon 30, Lizinna, Rigevidon, Cilique: 5-7 in 10,000
Dianette: 4 in 10,000
Ovranette: 1.5 in 10,000

For context, the average risk for a woman not pregnant and not on the pill is two in 10,000, and for a pregnant woman it is six in 10,000.

A review of the links between blood clots and the jab showed that out of around 20 million people who had been given a first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, 79 people developed blood clots and 19 died.

Two-thirds of those who developed rare clots were women, and three of those who died were under 30.

It’s unknown whether other factors affected the risk – such as whether some of those who developed clots were also taking contraception.

The government’s independent medical advisors last night recommended that under-30s be given a different jab where possible, however it has not been banned and all age groups will still be able to receive the AZ vaccine.

Links between rare blood clots and the AstraZeneca jab have not been firmly proved, but the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the link was becoming firmer.

The statistics in our list are taken from patient information leaflets available in the pills’ packets and online, showing the blood clot risk pill users face.

The figures for the pills are the risk of a woman developing a blood clot over a year, with the contraception taken more or less daily, compared to the total risk from a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Professor Adam Finn, a vaccine expert, told Good Morning Britain: “Every year, a woman runs a risk approaching one in a hundred of getting some kind of thrombosis and some of those thromboses are severe and even life threatening as well.

“So, that’s a risk that many women take, and accept quite willingly all the time, and it’s a far greater risk in fact than the risk we are seeing with this important vaccine that has the potential to get us all out of this dilemma.”

Finn emphasised that the advice was simply for young people to get a different jab if available, given that the risk of being hospitalised from Covid is far lower for the under-30s than any other group.

The family of a person who died from a blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca jab have urged people to keep taking it. Dr Alison Astles, whose brother Neil died aged 59, told The Telegraph he had been “extraordinarily unlucky”.

“Despite what has happened to our family, we strongly believe that everyone should go for their first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” she said.

For more information on the Coronavirus vaccine, read the official NHS advice.