Another two women, Amy Nordone and Lauren Powell, have filed lawsuits against Bayer, the makers of Yaz birth control pills. Both are claiming that if they had known that they were risking their lives taking the pill, they wouldn’t have.
Nordone and Powell both suffer from gallstones and blood clots as a result of taking Yaz. Yaz is made with a combination of ethinyl and drosperinone that has been proven to increase the risks of users suffering from various adverse side effects such as heart problems, strokes, blood clots and gallbladder complications. The popular pills quickly became the market’s best seller among young women as soon as it was released in the early 2000s, and many are blaming a huge marketing campaign that claimed the pill could help clear up acne and help treat major symptoms of PMS.
The downside to this major marketing campaign, which included commercials, is that it worked. Young women that have taken Yaz have since been diagnosed with various severe and life-threatening conditions including blood clots, pulmonary embolisms, deep vein thrombosis, strokes, heart attacks and damage to their gallbladder that often requires surgery to correct.
The commercials for Yaz successfully downplayed any negative side effects until the FDA caught wind of it and forced Bayer to replay the ads, but include the negative side effects. However, by the time Bayer complied with the FDA’s order, thousands of young women like Nordone and Powell were already suffering from the adverse effects of the pills. Thousands of Yaz lawsuits have been filed against Bayer under claims of misleading advertising in Canada and the United States.
Bayer stands stubbornly behind Yaz and its sister pill Yasmin. The first group in the lawsuits is being heard in Bellwether trials which are being presided over by Judge David Herndon.
