I have to say that it is a drug I had never heard of until it was mentioned here and the side effects do look worse than some of the newer drugs (apparently there have been a lot of changes in oral contraceptives in the past 10 years). There have also been a lot of cases where drug companies have dropped the ball with respect to testing, especially in America. I read some reports of the FDA allegedly being bribed to let some drugs in (though I have no evidence either way...). I wonder if Yasmin is not known here because our equivilent didn't accept it as safe?