500 signatures reached
To: Therapeutic Goods Administration
Save women’s lives: ban the dangerous Diane-35 drug
This drug has a higher risk of life threatening blood clots than modern, safer alternatives.
If Diane-35 isn’t banned outright then:
• restrict prescribing to specialists, or require GPs to obtain a specific Authority to Prescribe
• require blood tests to rule out genetic disorders which increase the risk of blood clots before a patient starts taking it
• put warnings on packets so women know it is NOT approved as a contraceptive in Australia.
Ban Diane-35 to stop Australian women needlessly being harmed or killed by this dangerous drug, which increases the risk of deadly blood clots.
Why is this important?
Nearly a year ago a 64cm blood clot almost killed my healthy 20 year-old daughter, Elanor, after she was prescribed an old and dangerous drug, Diane-35.
Diane-35 is also marketed under the names Brenda-35, Carolyn-35, Chelsea-35, Estelle-35, Ginette-35, Juliet-35, Katie-35, Laila-35 and Dermapil.
Since talking publicly of our experience I’ve been deluged with horror stories of life threatening or fatal blood clots by families from across Australia.
I’ve researched the issues and met with health regulatory authorities and professional bodies.
This drug has never been approved for use in the USA and was actually banned in Europe in 2013 after too many women died from blood clots, and only reintroduced with tough restrictions.
Yet it’s routinely prescribed to unknown thousands of Australian women without proper warnings, education or consideration of safer, modern alternatives.