- A 30-year-old woman started bleeding from her butt after taking birth control.
- Doctors diagnosed him with ischemic colitis, a rare intestinal disease.
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A “healthy” woman in Illinois began bleeding from her butt after suffering a rare and deadly complication from the pill.
The anonymous patient, 30, suffered from the side effect for three weeks shortly after starting progesterone contraceptive, sometimes called the “mini-pill.”
A colonoscopy revealed the rare bowel disease ischemic colitis, which occurs when blood flow to parts of the large intestine is cut off.
Without that circulation, parts of the intestine can die, causing death. Doctors who treated her said it was only the second such case.
An anonymous patient, 30 years old, suffered an intestinal condition and rectal bleeding after taking a contraceptive method that only contained progesterone.
In this image of the patient’s colon, the researchers pointed out inflammation and tissue damage due to ischemic colitis.
The woman visited the local emergency room after three weeks of worsening cramps, debilitating nausea and bloody diarrhea.
She had no underlying health problems, but she was obese and had been on birth control for two months.
He was diagnosed with ischemic colitis, which is usually caused by increased blood clotting in the abdomen and intestines.
Recent investigation suggests that ischemic colitis is found in about 15 to 18 people per 100,000, or less than one percent of the population.
If left untreated, it can lead to gangrene (in which intestinal tissue dies) or death.
Experts are not sure how the progesterone-only pill caused the patient’s condition.
However, researchers noted that contraceptives may increase the risk of blood clotting, although the exact mechanism is unclear.
“Despite the widespread use of progesterone-only contraceptives, the occurrence of IC in this patient population remains underrecognized,” the team wrote.
“The mechanism underlying progesterone-only contraceptives triggering ischemic events remains poorly understood, underscoring the need for further research and increased surveillance in patients using progesterone-only contraceptives.”
Estrogen-containing contraceptives have been shown to increase the risk of life-threatening blood clots by two to six times.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that a woman’s risk of clots increases with progesterone-only pills, and the same applies to those with hormonal or non-hormonal IUDs.
Researchers say her case is only the second documented case of birth control-related ischemic colitis, and the first to be proven with a biopsy.
The patient was instructed to stop contraception and her symptoms improved in approximately two weeks.
The case report was published last month in Journal of GCA Case Reports.
