STATES CHRONICLE – Blood clots could be helpful as they prevent us from losing too much blood when we get a superficial scratch. However, if clots occur inside the body, in one of our veins, this could lead to a stroke called CVT (cerebral venous thrombosis).

According to a new study conducted by a team from the Academic Medical Centre from Amsterdam, the risk of CVT is higher in obese women who take oral contraceptives. Oral contraceptives have their own negative side effects which the doctor prescribing them usually tells you about.

There is the myth that contraceptive pills will make you fat and mess up with your hormones, which can happen if you don’t take them exactly as your doctor prescribed. Otherwise, their side-effects should be at a minimum.

Unfortunately, women who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot which usually occurs in the leg as well as pulmonary embolism which, obviously, forms in the lungs. Knowing this, the researchers wanted to see whether birth-control pills could increase even more the risk of these women developing blood clots.

They started by studying 186 medical records of patients with CVT. It turned out that the patients were more likely to be young women using oral contraceptives. Besides, obesity was also an important factor to consider as it increases the risk of CVT in women who are on the pill.

Scientists managed to find that obese women on contraceptive pills were 30 times more likely to have a CVT. Moreover, they couldn’t find any link between obesity and CVT in women who didn’t use oral contraceptives, which suggests that the pills might really be at fault.

It was previously believed that the only contraceptives which could increase clot risk were the ones with estrogen. But scientists soon realized that estrogen is not the only substance responsible for blood clots. They found links between CVT and progestings which can also be found in contraceptive pills.

It is recommended that doctors give better counseling on the use of birth-control pills especially to obese women, informing them of the risks the pills can pose. Moreover, they could also recommend them some other contraceptive options which are not hormonal.

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