Yaz and smoking

[Tassha1223]

I used to smoke for about a year but inconsistently while taking the pill Yaz. I stopped due to the fact of higher blood clot risk. Am I still at a higher risk even if I stopped smoking completely?

[Siân]

Hi Yaz,

Both smoking and the pill can increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis (the blood clotting you're speaking about), so when you were smoking you had two things increasing your risks. When you stop smoking, that risk reduces - how far it reduces depends on how much you smoked and for how long. The increase in risk from being on the pill continues while you are on the pill, though in reality the risk is fairly small; there are about 6 extra cases of blood clotting for every 10 000 people prescribed - that's 0.06% of users.

Of course, quitting smoking will have a whole lot of other health benefits beyond reducing your risk of blood clotting!

Does that make sense?

[Tassha1223]

yes thank you! Is there ever a chance for it to be able to reduce completely just to the risk normal pill users?

[Heather]

Given how briefly you smoked for, and the fact that you're a younger person, I think it's safe to say that's likely.