Bride-to-be dies from blood clot after taking contraceptive for 10 years
Jenna Morris (left) died after deep vein thrombosis developed in her legs and spread to her lungs. She is pictured here with her sister Suzanne (right)
A bride-to-be died from a blood clot thought to have been caused by taking the contraceptive pill.
Bank worker Jenna Morris, 28, collapsed after deep vein thrombosis developed in her leg and moved to her lungs.
She had complained of shooting pains in her legs just hours before.
Miss Morris, who had been taking the Pill for more than ten years, had been making plans to marry her fiancé Luke Hawson later this year.
Her devastated family yesterday paid tribute to the girl they called 'our beautiful pink princess' because of her liking for the colour.
The death raises questions over the risk of DVT for women who take the Pill over many years.
Each year, a handful of women using it will suffer a blood clot but few suffer serious ill effects.
Miss Morris, of Poulton, Wirral, was training to become a mortgage adviser at HSBC.
Weeks before her death she had been signed off work due to ill health by her doctor, who diagnosed kidney stones and prescribed a course of antibiotics.
The Pill: What are the risks?
The NHS recognises that the hormone oestrogen in the Pill may cause the blood to clot more readily. If a blood clot develops it could cause deep vein thrombosis.
However, the risk is very small - around 15 out of 100,000 women taking the Pill for a year will develop DVT, compared to five to ten cases in women not on the Pill.
This risk is considerably smaller than pregnancy.
Before prescribing the Pill, GPs should check whether a woman has any DVT risk factors. These include being aged over 35, being obese or a smoker, having a family history of DVT, having high blood pressure or getting severe migraine attacks. The Pill shouldn't be prescribed if you have two or more risk factors.
Doctors advise patients on the combined oral contraceptive pill to stop taking it four weeks before a major operation such as joint replacement or treatment for varicose veins. It should not be taken until two weeks after they are mobile again.
However, it is considered safe to continue taking it before minor surgery.
But on the day of her death, in February, Miss Morris complained of shooting pains in her legs to her mother, Christine, who discovered her body a few hours later.
A post-mortem examination later revealed she died of deep vein thrombosis, possibly caused by the Pill.
Her sister, Suzanne, said: 'I'm still in shock. I still cannot believe what happened. I keep thinking it is a terrible dream.
'Jenna was originally told she had kidney stones.
'She was due to go for a scan but it would not have detected the blood clot, which we were told was possibly caused by the contraceptive pill.
'People should be aware because it could happen to anyone.
'Jenna was a fantastic sister. I miss her so much.'
At her funeral last month, hundreds of mourners dressed in pink as they crammed into the chapel to pay their respects.
A letter from fiancé Mr Hawson was read out by the vicar.
It said: 'Sorry I could not give you the big day you always dreamed of, Princess.'
An inquest into the death has been opened and adjourned.
The most popular type of Pill (the combined Pill with the female hormones oestrogen and progestogen) works by preventing the ovaries from producing an egg each month.
But it does have side effects, with blood clots being the most dangerous.
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