At the age of 19, while working part time and going to cosmetology school, I was prescribed birth control for medical reasons. I was only given a brief explanation of the chances of blood clots and what the symptoms would be if I were to develop one. Eight weeks after starting the birth control, I ended up with Deep Vein Thrombosis in my right leg. The damage was so severe that I had to drop out of school and even after nearly two decades, I have complications due to developing Post Thrombotic Syndrome. I was completely unaware that I had inherited a genetic mutation called Prothrombin G20210A, also known as Factor II mutation, from my Father. Had I been tested for it, along with Factor V Leiden, and other common clotting disorders, I could’ve prevented the blood clot from happening. I went on to develop an autoimmune blood clotting disorder called Antiphospholipid Syndrome, and have had clots two more times, the second time in both lungs and legs and the third went to my heart causing me to have a heart attack after major surgery. Women are DYING due to the lethal combination of hormone birth control and genetic blood clotting disorders they don’t know they have. Twenty Five (25%) percent of people who develop blood clots die before it is even known they have blood clots (source: cdc.gov) Five to eight percent (5-8%) of people in this country have a genetic predisposition to develop blood clots (source: cdc.gov) StoptheClot.com says “Only 1 in 1,000 women per year who are taking birth control pills will develop such a clot. For a woman with thrombophilia or a history of thrombosis, however, this risk is significantly higher.” Please sign the petition today and help prevent another woman from suffering or losing her life and require doctors to test women before prescribing birth control, both in their offices and through other sources.