Birth control pill
An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013. French health regulators are studying limiting the use of contraceptive pills that carry health risks and will stop reimbursing prescription costs of some types from March, after a woman sued drugmaker Bayer over alleged side-effects. An inquiry launched this week by the ANSM health regulator will review prescription practices by doctors, whom it says may be over-prescribing higher-risk third and fourth-generation pills. Reuters

Scientists have found a link between women who suffered from stroke and consumption of birth control pills. With over 100 million women taking oral contraceptives worldwide, experts highly discourage the use of the pills for women who smoke cigarettes as it could increase the risk of stroke.

The risk of ischemic strokes, the condition caused by blood clots that covers about 85 percent of all strokes, would significantly increase upon intake of oral contraceptives for women, especially for those who smoke while taking the pills. Women with high blood pressure or a history of migraine headaches are also at higher risk to the negative impact of the pills.

The new study, published in the journal MedLink Neurology, shows, however, that the severity of the risk relies on other health factors. The risk of stroke due to the influence of birth control pills was found small for healthy young women without stroke risk factors.

In every 100,000 women of childbearing age, the researchers found that ischemic strokes commonly occur about 4.4 times. But the influence of birth control pills increases the risk 1.9 times to 8.5 strokes for the same number of women.

In addition, the risk of ischemic stroke increases by 40 percent if a woman receives hormone replacement therapy with estrogen alone or combined with progesterone. The researchers noted that the risk increases depending on the level of doses.

The findings are to update the original study published in 2003. However, oral contraceptives were not found to increase the risk of hemorrhagic strokes, the condition caused by bleeding in the brain in the general population, said researchers from Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

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