The news arrived, as it does more often all the time, by way of Facebook.

“Well, if I have a heart attack and die one of these days,” posted 24-year-old Melissa Huggins last weekend, “sue the crap out of Bayer for me, okay?”

Huggins, a Spokane graduate student, linked her post to a New York Times story on the popular oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin.

According to the Times, these two birth control pills have become Bayer Healthcare’s best-selling drug line, thanks to advertising that’s convinced young women like Huggins and her friends that the pills also fight acne, moodiness, bloating, irritability and other hazards of living in a woman’s body. (Seems there could be an untapped market for male hormone formulas advertised as likely to reduce crankiness, excessive TV-remote hoarding and refusal to ask directions, but I digress.)

Lately, conflicting research studies, recent FDA actions and lawsuits have raised concerns about Yaz and Yasmin. Women who take them may face a higher risk for blood clots and strokes than they would with some other birth control formulas.

“The pill” was introduced nearly 50 years ago, in 1960, and women have been weighing the risks and benefits of its various incarnations ever since.

Early versions contained high doses of estrogen, which were linked to blot clots and strokes, and a progestin hormone. As the medication evolved, the dose of estrogen declined and so, according to studies, did the risks.

But Yasmin, which was approved by the FDA in 2001, featured a new form of progestin called drospirenone. In 2006, Yaz was introduced, combining drospirenone with a lower dose of estrogen.

Bayer warns that because drospirenone can increase potassium levels, the drug shouldn’t be used by women with liver or kidney disease, who may suffer serious heart problems.

While a Bayer-sponsored study showed no increase in heart disease or death in women taking pills containing drospirenone over an older form of progestin, two other European studies showed a higher risk of blood clots. According to the Times, Bayer said it faces 74 lawsuits from women who say their health suffered after they took Yaz or Yasmin.

While the FDA has not recalled the drugs, last year it asked Bayer to change its misleading commercials. In August it sent Bayer a warning letter regarding the company’s quality control standards.

Meanwhile, young women debate how to respond.

It seems to Huggins that all her friends are on Yaz or Yasmin. After they’ve talked with each other, she says, young women often go to their doctor specifically asking for these brands.

The pharmaceutical company corrected its television ads earlier this year to clarify its claims for Yaz.

But, Huggins points out, “The word-of-mouth is that ‘Oh, yeah, Yaz does all these wonderful, magical things.’ That can’t be corrected.”

As long as I can remember, women have been debating the risks and the benefits of birth control pills. Certainly millions of women take them safely. The National Cancer Institute warns that while some studies show no increased risk of breast cancer for users of birth control pills, others do. Several studies have shown that these drugs reduce the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer, yet increase the risk of cervical cancer.

It might seem simpler to steer clear of these medications altogether. But, as Huggins knows, these decisions aren’t easy.

Huggins, who recently worked in a Planned Parenthood office in Tacoma, knows many women struggle to find a form of birth control that actually works well for them. She’s alarmed by the news story she read, but she thinks she’ll stick with her Yasmin prescription, perhaps well into the future.

“I could be on birth control for three decades,” she says. “A very expensive, long time.”

Huggins paid a $15 co-pay each month while she had insurance, and she now expects her cost to rise to between $40 and $60 a month without it.

Young women like Huggins know that avoiding oral contraceptives could even more profoundly complicate their lives.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports that in August, unemployment rates for single mothers were approximately twice as high as those for married men and married women. The poverty rate for families of single mothers now stands at 28.3 percent.

One more fact hasn’t changed since 1960: The side effects of skipping birth control pills can be the riskiest of all.