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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Health & medicine fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about health & medicine. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

13,667 published reviews in this topic

VRTNWSHealth & medicine

Wie een lange vliegtuigvlucht neemt én bovendien anticonceptiepillen neemt, heeft meer kans op een trombose.

Publisher’s rating: Waar

The review examines a TikTok claim that taking contraceptive pills while on a long flight raises the chance of thrombosis. It concludes that the claim is true, but stresses that the increase is limited and the overall risk remains small. The review describes prolonged sitting as a risk factor for anyone, and says that it can combine with the added risk from contraceptive pills containing both estrogen and progestogen. To assess the claim, the review draws on studies and expert comments, including statements from vascular surgeon Marc Vuylsteke and specialists Monika Laubach and Thomas Vanassche. It reports that long periods of sitting can slow blood flow, and that flight conditions may add to the risk. Vuylsteke confirms that the combination of a long flight and the pill raises risk, while noting that exact data for that combined risk are unavailable. Vanassche says risk factors can reinforce one another but cautions against interpreting this as a reason to skip the pill. The review’s conclusion is qualified: the risk is not presented as large, and the advice is to move around during a long flight. It says the increased pill-related risk applies especially to combined pills containing estrogen and progestogen; pills containing only progestogen are described as not carrying an increased risk. The review also notes that the evidence does not establish an exact combined-risk estimate, so its conclusion is about increased likelihood, not a precise prediction for an individual traveller.