‘We had to sacrifice a lot’: woman’s unexpected pregnancy after taking Yaz Plus

When a 27-year-old KwaZulu-Natal woman discovered she was eight weeks pregnant, the news came as a shock. She and her husband, both relying on the oral contraceptive Yaz Plus, had never planned for a child.

She was on the contraceptive pill and took it as prescribed and expected it would do what it is supposed to do: prevent an unwanted pregnancy. But that was not the case. She fell pregnant while on the pill. “We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” she recalled. “We didn’t understand how it could happen.”

She is one of more than 500 women whose lives have been turned upside down by a defective batch of Yaz Plus contraceptive pills, an error that may have led to hundreds of unintended pregnancies around South Africa.

The consequences for this family were far-reaching; medical bills soared above R80,000, they were forced to sell their car, close their business for weeks, and eventually move towns to afford schooling for their child.

According to the woman, the couple paid about R23,000 in cash for the gynaecologist and a further R40,000 to the hospital. They also incurred additional costs for medical scans, which cost about R3,500 each.

“We’ve had to sacrifice a lot of things,” she said. “Everything wasn’t going according to plan. We struggled a lot financially to get where we are today, not that we aren’t still struggling.”

Her story is at the heart of a potential class action lawsuit that could reshape the landscape of pharmaceutical accountability in South Africa.

Law firm LHL Attorneys Incorporated has confirmed to Sunday Times that it is reviewing more than 500 inquiries from women who may have been affected by the defective batch of the oral contraceptive pill Yaz Plus, manufactured by Bayer.

The firm said it continues to receive new reports daily as more women realise the impact the packaging error may have had on their lives.

The potential class action follows the official recall of a batch of Yaz Plus oral contraceptive tablets by Bayer SA, in consultation with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), which on November 18 2024 identified and recalled a defective batch of blister packs that had been subject to a critical mispackaging error and had at that time already been in circulation in South Africa for more than a year.

In the defective blister packs, the normal order of active hormone tablets to placebo tablets had been completely reversed, so the affected blister packs contained 24 placebo tablets and only four active hormone tablets, which fundamentally compromised the product’s contraceptive effectiveness.

The law firm said the recall covers certain batches released between November 2023 and January 2025 and warned the error “may cause undue stress, financial burdens and unintended pregnancies for many individuals”.

Sahpra issued a recall of Yaz Plus pills batch WEW96J distributed between November 9 and 24 2023.

Under the Consumer Protection Act, manufacturers, distributors and retailers can be held liable for defective products, even if unaware of the defect. Alternatively, claims may be brought in delict for negligence.

LHL Attorneys is urging affected women to come forward if they experienced an unintended pregnancy after using Yaz Plus.

Had we planned the pregnancy, things would have been different. We could have prepared better—  A 27-year-old KwaZulu-Natal woman who was on the contraceptive pill

For the 27-year-old mother, the fallout has been financial and emotional.

After learning of the recall via social media, she and her husband reflected on the exhausting ordeal, medical expenses, business disruption and daily challenges of raising a child they had not planned for.

“Had we planned the pregnancy, things would have been different. We could have prepared better,” she said.

The couple’s story is not unique: many affected women are now facing similar challenges, from massive medical bills to abrupt life changes.

Beyond the financial strain, the emotional toll was immense, even for their marriage. “We didn’t speak to each other for three hours after I told him I found out I was pregnant,” she said. The birth itself was traumatic, ending in an emergency C-section after her baby went into foetal distress.

“All I heard while I was lying on the operating table was ‘code red, code red’. When they pulled him out, he was blue in the face, and I didn’t hear him cry. My heart almost broke. But then, luckily, he started crying. In that moment, nothing else mattered.”

According to Demi Buckley, a senior associate at LHL Attorneys, the type and extent of compensation may differ depending on each woman’s circumstances and the effects of the pregnancy. Potential claims include medical expenses, loss of income and, in cases of miscarriage or termination, damages for pain, suffering and trauma. For live births, compensation may cover the unplanned costs of raising a child from food and clothing to school fees and, in some cases, tertiary education.

Buckley emphasised the claims are not about rejecting the children born as a result of the defective batch.

“In many circumstances, families are very happy with the outcome and love their child very much. The driving force behind this claim is to ensure women are compensated for the unplanned expenses associated with pregnancy, birth and raising a child, which those families had not prepared for and have incurred as a result of a defective product.”

Women who believe they may have been affected by the defective Yaz Plus batch can contact LHL Attorneys [https://www.yazplusclaim.co.za/] for assistance in gathering the necessary medical and pharmacy records and to assess their rights.