Yaz Class Action Lawsuit
Currently there is no national Yaz class action lawsuit and claims are being pursued individually and have been consolidated into what is referred to as “multi-district litigatation”. Yaz and blood clots can cause several dangerous side effects, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism, stroke, and heart attack. Clots (also called thrombi) can form due to the two hormones contained in this birth control pill: estrogen and drospirenone. This latter compound is an artificial progestin that sharply increases the risk of abnormal clotting; Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella are currently the only oral contraceptives on the market that use it. To fully appreciate why these thrombi are problematic, it’s worth reviewing how clots normally form.
Your body has a natural clotting mechanism that repairs injuries within your veins and arteries. This mechanism prevents blood from escaping. Once repairs have been completed, an agent called plasmin starts to digest fibrin, one of the main components of a thrombus. This is the process by which clots are dissolved.
When blood clots caused by Yaz form, they do so outside your body’s normal clotting mechanism. As a result, they are not sufficiently dissolved by plasmin. Instead, they remain attached to the venous or arterial walls, where they pose a danger of breaking away and migrating to other areas in your body. Below, you’ll discover how this leads to the dangerous Yaz side effects mentioned earlier.
Venous Thrombosis
Thrombi can form within superficial veins or deep veins. The former lie near the surface of your skin. Clots that form within them rarely pose a serious problem because they do not break away from the venous wall.
By contrast, thrombi that form within the deep veins (i.e. DVT) do pose a problem. Unlike superficial veins, these veins are surrounded by muscles, which contract around them whenever you move your limbs. When the muscles contract, they compress the veins and push blood toward your heart and lungs. These contractions can also cause thrombi to break away from the venous wall. When this happens, they are carried along with your bloodstream.
When Yaz blood clots migrate to your heart and lungs, they pose a danger of finding their way into a pulmonary artery. These arteries feed blood to your lungs. An embolus (i.e. a traveling mass, such as a thrombus) that lodges within one of these arteries can starve the lung tissue of blood. This triggers pulmonary embolism. It is estimated that 90% of diagnosed PE cases are caused by thrombi that have migrated from the deep veins.
Arterial Thrombosis
Thrombi can also form within the arteries. In most cases, this occurs when plaque builds up along the arterial wall and ruptures, which triggers the body’s natural clotting mechanism. Yaz blood clots can also form along the arterial walls. Similar to venous thrombosis, they pose a risk of breaking away.
Veins carry blood to your heart and lungs in order to pick up oxygen. Arteries carry oxygenated blood away from your heart to your organs and tissues. When a thrombus forms within an artery and breaks away, it can migrate to other areas of your body. An embolus can potentially migrate toward your brain.
Your internal carotid artery feeds blood and oxygen to your brain through a supporting network of secondary arteries. An embolus that lodges within one of these arteries can prevent blood and oxygen from reaching a portion of your brain tissue. This causes an ischemic stroke. The brain tissue supplied by the blocked artery begins to die, potentially causing a number of debilitating side effects.
Yaz side effects involving blood clots are dangerous because they can form within the deep veins or arteries. If they break away and travel with your bloodstream, they can trigger pulmonary embolism, stroke, and other serious Yaz problems. If you or someone you know has suffered abnormal clotting after using this birth control pill, contact an experienced birth control attorney. Find out whether you have a legal right to file a Yaz lawsuit against the manufacturer.