Oral contraceptives and prodromal symptoms in fatal pulmonary embolism in young women
Kjeldaas, L.; Jacobsen, C.D.; Laake, K.; Borchgrevink, C.F.
Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening Tidsskrift for Praktisk Medicin Ny Raekke 108(15): 1189-1190
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0029-2001 PMID: 3388343 Document Number: 318040
From 1978 to 1984, eight fatalities with thrombo-embolic complications which occurred in young women who had been taking oral contraceptives were notified to the Adverse Drug Reactions Committee. Five of the deaths were due to pulmonary embolism. The average age of the five women was 24 years (18-33). Four of the five had experienced symptoms which may have been prodromal symptoms of pulmonary embolism: increasing substernal pains and dyspnoea, especially during physical activity. Two of them were active sportswomen, and two were nonsmokers. The warning signs occurred from two months to one week before death. The possibility of complications from oral contraceptives should be borne in mind when young women complain of pain in the chest, sudden dyspnoea, or pain in their lower extremities. Users of oral contraceptives should be given sufficient information, and should be made familiar with the early symptoms of thrombo-enolic reactions. In Norway, oral contraceptives have been prescribed mainly to younger women. Sales statistics show that between 1978 and 1984, as many as 110,000 to 140,000 women per year have been taking oral contraceptives.