Family's plea after woman, 22, dies from blood clot while taking the pill

The family of a young UK woman who died of a blood clot after taking the contraceptive pill is calling for medical check-ups to be made mandatory.

Riszka Szymkowska, 22, complained of a sore back before taking a bath and retiring to bed at her home in Walsall, England on April 5, 2020.

Within hours, her boyfriend found her on their bedroom floor. Doctors revealed Szymkowska had died of a blood clot caused by the pill.

RELATED: UK nurse, 23, suffered two strokes in one week 'because of the pill'

Szymkowska had been taking the "combined pill" containing two hormones, oestrogen and progestogen, to prevent pregnancy but hadn't had a check-up with a medical professional for 18 months.

She originally opted for the contraceptive as a way to regulate her menstrual cycle after being diagnosed with polycystic ovaries.

"Her last contact with a doctor was a telephone consultation, thanks to COVID," Szymkowska's stepfather Paul told Eminetra.

"So she hadn't measured blood pressure or checked her weight for two years. They just kept giving her pills."

Szymkowska continued to take the pill, even when an appointment could not be made for a medical check-up.

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The 22-year-old, one of the 100 million people worldwide that use the pill, died of a blood clot in her leg that had travelled to her heart.

"At the moment, women can just call up the doctors and get repeat prescriptions without having their blood pressure taken, which can determine what could go wrong," Szymkowska's step-sister Samantha Hadley told The Mirror.

"We want it to be mandatory that women have to go for these checks. I have no doubt in my mind if she had had an appointment she would still be here."

According to WebMd, the rate for getting a blood clot ranges from 0.3 per cent to 1 per cent of people on the pill over 10 years.

While the figures are low, studies reveal people taking the pill are two to six times more likely to get clots compared to those who don't.

A report by the National Blood Clot Alliance revealed 1 in 1,000 women per year who are taking birth control pills will develop such a clot.

Hadley noted her family was "not against" the pill, but wanted to ensure people "take two minutes" to have their vital health checks, to avoid suffering the same fate as her stepsister.

"She was the most fantastic person, so loving and caring," Hadley said.

In 2015, British nurse Hannah McGrath suffered from two strokes in one week, sparked by blood clots that were caused by the pill.

"The contraceptive pill has risks of creating clots, that's a known fact. It is very rare, it's like a ridiculously small percentage of people getting clots," she told 9Honey.

McGrath revealed she had a hole in her heart she didn't know about, which allowed the clots to travel up into her brain.

"When you think of stroke, most people think, 'That's something that happens to old people'," she said.

"It was really frustrating when it first happened and people were like, 'Well you don't look like you've had a stroke', and a few people said it wouldn't have been possible for me to have a stroke because of my age and stuff like that."

Dr Sarah Hardman, Deputy Director at the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, told the BBC, "Probably between five and 12 in 10,000 [women] will have clotting events - a vein thrombosis event."

"But not all of those women die. In fact, only about one per cent of the women who have a clotting event die."

Dr Hardman concluded three to 10 per million women were at risk of dying as a result of having a clot from a combined hormonal contraception.