Health Minister Marisol Touraine asked the European Union to limit the use of 3rd pills and 4th generation. “Each woman must be able to benefit from the contraception which is adapted to her. The use of the 3rd and 4th generation pills must be the exception, and not the rule”, explained Marisol Touraine during a press conference. The Minister wishes to limit the prescription of these pills suspected of increasing the risk of venous thrombosis. It is counting on the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) to refer the matter to the European authorities so that the indications for marketing authorizations are reviewed “in a restrictive sense”.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has already decided to advance the delisting of 3rd generation pills to March 2013 (instead of the end of 2013). Also, “3rd and 4th generation pills should no longer be offered as the first choice” by health professionals.
These precautionary measures wanted by the minister seem to contradict the latest opinion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This is reassuring in a press release and believes that women have no reason to stop taking combined contraceptive pills (estrogen-progestogen), including those of the 3rd generation. “There is currently no new evidence to suggest a change in the known safety profile of the combination pills currently on the market. There is therefore no reason for women to stop contraception,” said the EMA, based in London.
The agency recalls that the combined contraceptive pills have “a very rare risk of thrombosis and that this risk varies according to the types of combined pills”.
Danger of 3 pillse generation: “a lack of evidence”
She adds that all these contraceptives are monitored “on a constant and regular basis”, adds the agency adding that she “has not received any new evidence. […] on venous thromboembolism linked to the use of contraceptives.
2.5 million women are currently taking 3rd and 4th generation pills, or half of women on the pill in France, a prescription deemed excessive by the French health authorities.
>> To read also: 3rd generation pills: what are the risks?
