Is Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo Safe? A Popular Birth Control Pill

-Sharp chest pain
-Coughing blood
-Sudden shortness of breath
-Pain in the calf
-Crushing chest pain or tightness in the chest
-Sudden, severe, headache or vomiting
-Dizziness or fainting
-Disturbances of vision or speech
-Weakness or numbness in an arm or leg
-Sudden or complete loss of vision
-Breast lumps
-Severe pain or tenderness in the stomach area
-Difficulty in sleeping
-Weakness
-Lack of energy
-Fatigue
-Mood change
-Yellowing of the skin or whites of the eye along with fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, dark-colored urine or light-colored bowel movements

Numbness of arms or legs? Sharp chest pain? Signs of a possible heart attack.

Severe headache or disturbed speech? Signs of a possible stroke.

Do they come out and tell you that? No, not on the home page of their website. Their claim to care about women’s health has its limits, after all.

If you think that’s bad, it gets worse.

5. Dig a little bit on their website, and you can download their “full product information… including box warning.” The print out is over 50 pages.

The fine print adds these further contraindications. These are additional pre-existing illnesses that exclude you from qualifying as a good candidate for their contraceptive. In other words, these can be added to List #2 above:

-Thrombophlebitis or thromboembolic disorders
-A past history of deep vein thrombophlebitis or thromboembolic disorders
-Cerebral vascular or coronary artery disease (current or history)
-Valvular heart disease with complications
-Severe hypertension
-Diabetes with vascular involvement
-Headaches with focal neurological symptoms
-Hepatic adenomas or carcinomas
-Known or suspected pregnancy
-Hypersensitivity to any component of this product

6. The 50+ page document also names these common side effects to all oral contraceptives, including ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN LO:

-Myocardial infarction (aka a heart attack)
-Thromboembolism
-Stroke
-Hepatic neoplasia
-Gallbladder disease
-Death*

*That’s right, in this section, the document points out that the mortality rate for patients who used this product increases “significantly” in someone who has hypertension, hyperlipidemias, obesity, or diabetes.

7. The larger document lists these “thromboembolic disorders and other vascular problems” women risk occurring to them by taking their contraceptive drug:

-Myocardial infarction (aka a heart attack)
-Cerebrovascular diseases (of which they include stroke)
-Vascular disease

8. After discussing the mortality rate of contraception users, the manufacturers of ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN LO go on to list many more risk factors associated with their product. You know, the product women are told they must have available to them, because without it a society cannot claim to care about women or women’s health. Here’s that list of risk factors, minus ones previously mentioned:

-Ocular lesions
-Carbohydrate and lipid metabolic effects
-Elevated blood pressure
-Ectopic pregnancy

9. Scrolling down the 50+ product information guide that I imagine every doctor goes over thoroughly with every female patient of his or hers (no, not really), I find this: “Adverse Reactions” to using oral contraceptives. Here is the list, deleting out reactions already mentioned thus far:

-Arterial thromboembolism
-Pulmonary embolism
-Cerebral hemorrhage
-Cerebral thrombosis
-Mesenteric thrombosis
-Retinal thrombosis
-Amenorrhea
-Temporary infertility after discontinuing “treatment”
-Edema
-Melasma
-Breast changes, such as tenderness, enlargement, or secretion
-Weight gain
-Weight loss
-Cervical erosion
-Cervical secretion
-Vaginal candidiasis

10. Here is a list of side effects women experienced using their product that the manufacturers of ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN LO claim they cannot confirm nor deny. I deleted from the list symptoms we already have confirmed elsewhere in their own documentation. Here is the rest of the list:

-Pre-menstrual syndrome
-Cataracts
-Changes in appetite
-Cystitis-like syndrome
-Hirsutism
-Loss of scalp hair
-Erythema multiforme
-Erythema nodosum
-Hemorrhagic eruption
-Vaginitis
-Porphyria
-Impaired renal function
-Hemolytic uremic syndrome
-Acne
-Changes in libido (aka your sex drive)
-Colitis
-Budd-Chiari Syndrome

I find two big ironies in this list. First, ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN LO is one of only three oral contraceptives said to be approved by the FDA for combating acne. Yet, their own product information says this drug could cause acne.

Secondly, we keep being told birth control pills and products are supposedly liberating to women, because now they can finally have the “freedom” to have sex with no consequence, just like men. Setting aside all the other hundreds of side effects that could occur from this product alone, just focus on the one that can change the woman’s libido. If she takes this pill, she may not even want to jump in the sack.