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Courtesy of Lynsey Lee
Lynsey Lee, 19, was diagnosed two years ago with a blood clot in her left lung, months after she began taking the birth control pill Yaz.
Lynsey Lee hoped Yaz would relieve her severe menstrual cramping and pelvic pain, so she began taking the birth control pills when she was only 16. But, instead of getting better, she started experiencing extreme mood swings, nausea and even more pain.
“I got really, really sick,” says Lee, now 19, of White Bluff, Tenn. “I was just constantly throwing up, and it was getting hard to breathe sometimes.”
Then, she started having unbearable chest pains that sent her to the hospital what seemed like every few days. Doctors initially couldn’t figure out what was wrong. “They kept telling me that it was just my body getting used to the medicine,” she says. “Finally, [when I was 17] I just stopped taking it.”
Later that year, after numerous medical exams, doctors diagnosed a blood clot lodged in her left lung. During one emergency room visit, doctors asked Lee what would become a life-changing question for thousands of young women like her: “Have you ever taken Yaz?”
Now, she is among the more than 10,000 American women who have filed class action lawsuits or claims against the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which makes Yaz, a popular birth control pill. Thousands more claims are expected. In documents released Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration raised questions about conflicting evidence about the risks of taking Yaz and other similar pills, including life-threatening blood clots, and said warning information should appear on labels for doctors and patients.
Thursday, the FDA's panel of outside experts voted 21-5 that current labeling on the medications isn't enough and should be updated with more information on the risks. But that news comes too late for Lee.
“I wish I had known before,” she says. “I never would have taken Yaz.”
A representative from Bayer said the company did not have an immediate response.
The side effects of taking the birth control pill that was touted as having fewer side effects than others have destroyed her life, Lee says.
She had been the captain of the high school dance team, but Lee said after she began developing symptoms, she had to sit on the sidelines because she couldn’t catch her breath. She ended up missing the second half of her senior year in high school, including her senior prom. But, she says, her biggest sacrifice was giving up a full dance team scholarship to Vanderbilt University -- all because of the blood clot that doctors can do little about.
Removing it is too dangerous, they say; Lee takes blood thinners and hopes the clot will dissolve and work its way through her system.
Today, Lee says, she lives with pain and fatigue and isn't strong enough to work. Instead of attending college classes to earn a business degree, Lee makes weekly visits to her doctor for monitoring.
She’s hired Oklahoma City attorney Noble McIntyre, a member of the attorney group The Injury Board, which advocates for patient safety. McIntyre represents 60 Yaz victims and partners with another firm representing 600 Yaz clients.
“She’s missed out on her youth, and she missed out on a scholarship that probably was worth $200,000,” McIntyre says. “We try to give our clients hope that somebody understands what they are going through. We’re trying to communicate with the defendant what these women, through no fault of their own, have experienced. She lost her prom. She lost her freedom, something so valuable to people, because she’s mostly confined to her home.”
Story: FDA panel: Add stronger warnings to birth control labels
Lee says she’s depressed because her compromised health keeps her from living a normal teenager’s life. “I cry a lot,” she says. "It just hurts so much."
She dreams of someday opening a pastry shop and bakes cakes now for her family when she’s up to it. Shehas helped coordinate fundraising efforts for the Ronald McDonald House and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. But she's still not sure what her future may hold.
“I don’t pray to get better because it’s in [God’s] hands,” she says. “I pray for happiness. I pray for others in this world that have it much worse than I do.”
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Leave a Comment:
Blood clots have been a side effect of birth control pills since they've been on the market,its nothing new and all women run the risk when taking them .This girl and all women who take them lose their right to sue when they take the first pill,because the risks are stated on the prescription and all pharmacies give printouts of the risks and instructions on how to take them when you get the drug.You lose that right when you agree to take them.
That is why you see all those ads on TV about everything from vaginal mesh, to Zoloft. Once you sign in with these guys, it's the company that gets the money NOT the people it hurt.
They make it sound like a really good deal. Just sign your name, set back and let them do the work. Trouble with that is they work alright, but not for you.
what an ass lawyers spend thousands of hours fighting for their clients and get only 40% of settlement or court award that is determined by federal and state law whether a class action or individual all medical expenses are paid first then lawyer gets 40% of remaining balance and 60 goes to plaintiff i been thru law suit that lasted 3 years and collected 150,000 after everyone was paid off i still got 65,000 not bad for 6month disability from car/motorcycle wreck
I took Yaz... The worst thing in life... At 40 I didn't want another child so birth control was the answer. Should have gotten pregnant instead. I got a massive blood clot in my leg. Almost lost my leg and my job was in jeopardy because I was in the hospital so long. Now I have to be on blood thinners and have a filter in my vein so the clots won't go into my lungs or heart. Can't do my marathons any longer because my legs get too tired when I run. They should have done more research before putting this drug on the market! Anyone thinking about this drug should think again... I will never be able to take any birth control pills again, nothing with hormones the doctor said. So when menopause comes who knows what I will have to do. This pill changed my life forever!
I would also like to say to Ms. Lee that her life is not destroyed - although it is changed from what she thought it would be. She is lovely, young, and bright, and other doors can open for her. Best wishes to her.
You are so right, her life is different not destroyed. She can still go to college and study business and it sounds like she is doing well enough: she has a part-time job at her family's bakery and volunteers for great causes. If she goes to community college part-time and does really well, which I suspect she will, she can end up earning a nice-sized academic scholarship to a 4-year university, maybe even Vanderbilt.
I just have to say, I'm sorry for this girl and all of you women on here who seem to have had every random side effect in the book, but I have been on birth control on and off since I was 14 - for the first 10 years just to try to control an incorrectly diagnosed skin condition. It did not help with the skin, but it did not cause me any problems, either. The majority of women on the pill do not have these problems. The way you all talk, it is as if putting the pill in your mouth equals unavoidable misery. That may be true for some (and for some, maybe it is an easy scapegoat), but it is not as inevitable as you imply. For millions of women, the pill has been a fantastic tool of empowerment, allowing women to take control of her own reproductive future and not have to rely on a man's willingness to use a condom. For millions of others it has been a successful treatment for a variety of ills from severe cramping to acne. Everyone needs to be aware of the risks and it would suck unimaginably to be one of the minority that reacts badly, but for the majority of us do just fine.
saddened better check again it is becoming a majority of women who suffer adverse or even deadly side effects from yaz and the old stand bye orthonovum
rbdragonrider, please provide a citation to your statement that "a majority of women [who] suffer adverse or even deadly side effects." Because that is ridiculous. Are you talking about nausea or headache? Or blood clots (which affect smokers more than non-smokers). The side effects for those women who do suffer them are terrible but it does them no good to exaggerate.
Old enough to take birth control then old enough to read the warnings and know learn the risks
People are warned of side effects before they are given drugs and if the medicine makes you feel bad, stop taking it.
all birth control medications have always had the side effects such as CHANCE of blood clots, CHANCE of headaches, CHANCE of stroke, DO NOT SMOKE if you are going to take birth control, and the list is so long I cannot think of all of them. she should not go after the makers, as it is stated in their commercials, packaging, information pamphlets, online. no one is in the dark about side effects and POSSIBLE side effects. if she wants to go after anyone, she should go after her doctors for not looking at her charts and knowing ALL medications she was and had been taken before/during/after the episode. patients need to make sure the doctors know ALL medications they take/have taken. I am 45 years old and when I was in high school the birth control pill had all those warnings on them and the doctors explained the "POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS". this is nothing new. the doctors are at fault for not looking into her file and medical history in depth. especially if they were seeing her as often as they were for these symptoms.
How the heck was she going to get a $200,000 scholarship? And why is this one specific person news when apparently thousands others are having the same problem. This is almost like the time last week when a youtubers comment made MSNBC.
"Oh we're giving $200k scholarships to people without lung problems, sorry *trollface*"
Stop whining. All birth control pills have warning of blood clots and contain extra hormones. What do hormones do besides cause mood swings. If they made you feel so crap then you should have done what many other women have had to do - stop taking the pills! This teen should have researched it more instead of just popping a pill and her mother (and father) should have known better about the side effects and taken her off of it. I'm not being insensitive. My cramps can be so bad that I cannot even sit up and I have to take hydrocodone for them when I'm experiencing them. I decided extra hormones in my system was not right for me so I never went on them - they were not right for her so she should have stopped. If we want the right to choose then we have to choose and not sew every 5 seconds for our choices!!
Yes there were loads of spelling mistakes in my rant- whatever. I will say before I click off this story that yes, medicinal side effects have been downplayed, but she is not claiming side effects that were not mentioned or side effects that were worse than mentioned. Blood clots are serious and sometimes deadly.
How about just not having sex when you're 16? Maybe a bag of condoms would have been a better idea?
It doesn't say she was having sex, and even if she was, teens are going to have sex at least she was being safe about it. A lot of women use it to help with the pain and other problems that come along with their periods.
All medicine is dangerous. If you read every single possible side-effect, we would never take it. I've never taken birth control because they all have side effects I'm not willing to deal with. Blood clots, heart attack, stroke, increased blood pressure, weight gain, increased risk of osteoporosis. You can't take them and think it's never going to happen to you. Just because you are a healthy 17 year old doesn't mean you're exempt. The blood clot is unfortunate and very scary I'm sure, but you have to know that these things can happen.
This is just another case of medical personnel and hospitals that are 'clueless'. Stop judging patients by age, weight and sex. I feel so badly for this young lady and hope that her life improves. She was only trying to look for relief from her intense menstrual symptoms that are painful and debilitating.
I had a terrible experience with Yaz. Ended up having my gallbladder removed even though I live a completely healthy lifestyle. It wasn't until after my surgery that I found out Yaz contributes to gallbladder problems. I really hope this lawsuit is what it takes to get this dangerous birth control drug off the market.
1) eat less
2) smoke less
Cramps my ass! She was taking Yaz so she could go out and get laid!
keep god out of it, its all a myth or outright lie anyway, god was created by men to explain what they couldnt understand or to blame their failings on, it was all extra terrestrials,look at all the ancient evidence, beings from the stars they called gods that gave them their knowledge that exceeds ours today modern engineers cant comprehend the construction of pyramids, aquaducts,walls with air tight seams and no mortar,mummification, ancient natural cures that prevented diseases we see out of control today with all the chemicals added to food and drugs we take supposedly needed to stay healthy in our poisonous environment i prefer to risk botulism or salmonella with natural unprocessed foods rather then intentionally poison myself with chemical additives and dies in processed foods
Every type of drug has side effects, and on every birth control commercial that I've ever seen, they list blood clotting as a potential side effect. Taking birth control just because you don't want to have a bad cramp is ridiculous, and it sucks that she got a blood clot, but all of the people saying she should sue are not being fair at all. She took the medicine, she knew the side effects, if she didn't read the label or thought she was above it then that's her fault.
She made the decision to take so that she could be a promiscuous teen. You will bear the consequences tomorrow for the decisions you make today. All FDA approved drugs list the side effects. People always thinks it happens to someone else but never them. Do you think people affected by side effects actually woke up that morning and thought they would throw their life away? Then when it affects them, they want to sue when they were warned of side effects before they took it. You took the risk, now bear the consequences. Now she decided to join a class action lawsuit where she will receive $0.02 on the dollar of the award and the attorneys will recieve the remaining $0.98 of each dollar. After she recieves her portion of the judgement, she will cry that the attorneys recieved too much of her compensation. Stand up and take responsibility for your actions and stop placing the blame on someone else. In the end, if you play, you will most likely pay.
I have no doubt she suffered. But destroyed her life?
She wouldn't have taken it if she had known that blood clots were a side effect? Well, then she didn't read the label. I have been taking birth control pills since 1986, LONG before Yaz ever came around, and I knew back then that you risked getting a blood clot when taking ANY form of birth control pill. It was written on the internal packaging and still is, to this day, for every form of birth control pill.
Blood clots have been I problem with birth control pills much longer then you know. My mother-in-law had to stop taking them back in the 60's because of blood clots
Has anyone ever listened to the commercials? May increase risk of blood clots, especially in women over the age of 35 who smoke. ALL ESTROGEN AND PROGESTRONE RELATED HORMONES INCREASE CLOTTING RISK!!! ALL BIRTHCONTROL PILLS CAN DO THIS... Also this teen should probably be evaluated for clotting diseases to rule out the fact that that she may have a genetic condition that predisposed her to getting blood clots such as Factor V Leiden. These lawsuits are a pathetic excuse because people are too stupid to learn about what they are putting in their bodies. Ignorance is no reason to sue someone. Makes about as much sense as lactose intolerant people sueing dairy farms because they didn't know there was lactose in milk....
I was on Yaz and Yasmin for years, and never had any trouble. While I'm sorry for this girl's pain, everything has it's risks. I agree that she has more of a case against the doctors who told her that chest pain was a normal way for her body to adjust to the medication.
"Lee takes blood thinners and hopes the clot will dissolve and work its way through her system." This could even kill her if it gets into the wrong places. Like caught in her brain even.