Usage of combined hormonal contraceptives has long been known to increase the risk of blood clots, affecting roughly 10 in 10,000 individuals on estrogen-containing birth control. However, how long this effect lasts once a person stops using the contraceptives is not known. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 66 women on hormone-based birth control, which included birth control pills , vaginal rings, and transcutaneous patches, before and after they stopped using contraceptives and compared them with 28 women not using hormone-based birth control.
An 80% drop in clotting markers was observed in women within two weeks of discontinuing the contraceptives, and an 85% drop occurred within four weeks. This suggests that the likelihood of developing clots due to birth control returns to nearly normal levels within the first few weeks of stopping birth control. The findings of this…
