A YOUNG woman died from a blood clot just three months after she started taking a contraceptive pill.

Helen Schofield, 33, was prescribed Dianette by her GP but she was not informed of the increased risk of getting Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), an inquest at Manchester magistrates' court heard.

But the GP, Dr Margaret Colter, said Helen had previously used a different pill called Celeste and would have been warned of the risks when that one was prescribed.

The inquest was told that it was the first and only time Dr Colter saw Helen following the retirement of her usual GP.

Helen, a charity shop volunteer from Prestwich, collapsed as she walked with her mother Kay Schofield after paying the deposit for her first home.

She died in hospital in February this year.

A pathologist concluded Helen, who was single, died of a 'massive pulmonary thromboembolisim' - blood clot - which formed in her left calf and travelled up through her heart and blocked an artery to a lung.

He said the fact she was taking Dianette was 'significant'.

Risk

Dr Colter told the inquest she knew it carried a fourfold increased risk of causing DVT compared to other contraceptive pills but insisted: "Any pill has its risks."

The inquest heard Helen was 'technically' overweight but led an active social life.

She had suffered problems with acne since her youth although the condition had eased.

Helen's mother Kay, who was also at the consultation with the GP, said her daughter was suffering 'different aches and pains'.

Her daughter's increase in weight, acne and period pains were also discussed, Mrs Schofield told the inquest.

The GP arranged a scan and prescribed Dianette for her daughter's 'heavy periods' but not for her acne, said Mrs Schofield.

Mrs Schofield told the court 'there's no way Helen would have taken it' had the risks been outlined to her by Dr Colter.

She said she later read a leaflet on Dianette and became concerned about its possible harmful effects - especially as her husband had died of a heart-attack - and again contacted the GP surgery on her daughter's behalf.

Assurance

Mrs Schofield was given an assurance and her daughter began taking the drug.

Within weeks Helen developed a persistent, 'hacking', dry cough and was visited at home by another GP who prescribed antibiotics.

He also examined her for DVT in her legs but found no swelling.

Dr Colter said she didn't outline the risks involved with Dianette as Helen had been prescribed Celeste before and the patient would have been told the risks associated with it at the time.

Gabriel Beeby, a barrister representing the Schofield family, asked the GP if she was aware there was a fourfold increase of DVT with Dianette compared with other contraceptive pills.

"Studies do show that, yes," the doctor replied.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, assistant deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton, said: "It is known that there is an association between the oral contraceptive pill Dianette and the development of DVT and it seems to me that the connection in this particular case is quite pronounced.

"Miss Schofield took the oral contraceptive pill Dianette. That was a deliberate act. But of course it was not with a view to the consequence that actually occurred, a misadventure."

Helen's mother is now considering taking her case to the General Medical Council and wants Dianette to be banned or restricted.

Mrs Schofield, 62, said: "To me it's a lethal drug. If you don't read the leaflet that comes with it about the risks word for word, young girls are going to think it's wonderful because it treats acne and works as a contraceptive.

"To think others could be prescribed this drug frightens me to death. For some people it might be perfectly fine. But if I had known the risks there's no way on God's earth I would have advised Helen to have taken it."

Mrs Schofield, whose husband Michael died five years ago aged 54 of a heart attack, added: "Helen went to see her doctor with various aches and pains, nothing serious. And yet a few weeks later she had died. Helen's dream was to get her own little house. She found it, paid her deposit and within one-and-a-half hours was dead.

A spokesman for the makers of Dianette, Bayer, declined to comment on the case but said it would be investigated.

"Every report about possible side effects related to any of our products is reported to our Drug Safety Department and thoroughly investigated by our medical experts," he said.

He said the drug was well-established and that the risk of developing a blood clot was `slightly increased' for taking any form of pill, adding that this risk was explained in accompanying information.