Diane 35 associated with 27 deceased Dutch women

The side effects of Diane-35, a hormonal acne treatment that is often prescribed as a contraceptive, might have caused the death of 27 Dutch women, according to research from Dutch television program Zembla that will be aired on Thursday night. After reports in France of Diane-35 causing deadly blood clots earlier this year, Lareb, the Dutch institute which registers side effect of medicines, received hundreds of reports of side effects of Diane-35. Most of the information came from users is or relatives. So far, 18 deaths were associated with the drug, but Zembla revealed there may be more Dutch victims. Most women died from a pulmonary embolism, a form of thrombosis. The majority of the victims were younger than 30 years at death. Diane-35 is still available in the Netherlands, since 1987. In France, the pill is no longer available after 125 women suffered from thrombosis after using Diane-35 and four of them deceased. Only a few Dutch doctors, GPs, specialists and pharmacists have reported side effects after prescribing Diane-35. According to Rob Dijkstra, chairman of the Dutch GPs association, GPs think that the side effects are already known to Lareb. "We will have to work on that," he told Zembla.