It’s official. Almost four months after a lawsuit was filed by ten women against the Ortho Evra birth control patch concerning the serious health risks involved, the FDA issued a serious warning yesterday to the patch’s label.
The makers of the patch, Ortho McNeil, had previously denied the accusations of serious risks such as blood clots and strokes, claiming that the potential risks in the patch and the pill were more or less the same. Yet new information has found (and added to the label) that women who use the patch will be exposed to 60 percent more estrogen than women on the pill. DAMN.
While the patch and the pill both have the same amount of estrogen in them, hormones from the patch go directly into the blood stream while the pill is digested and loses a significant amount in the process. In result, women die and suffer from blood clots at a rate three times higher than women on the pill.
I never found a sticker on my ass very appealing to begin with, but hopefully now women will think twice before putting this serious amount of hormones into their bodies. Scary stuff.
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"I never found a sticker on my ass very appealing to begin with"
I thought you were supposed to wear it on your stomach? Anyway, it seems the obvious solution is to lower the dosage so it ends up being the equivalent of what you get from the oral method.
The stomach is one of a number of places you can put it, including your ass.
On the front page of Planned Parenthood's website today:
> "I've been hearing lately that the birth control patch is
> dangerous. Is that true?"
> No.
The rest of the article says although there have been reports of a few "adverse events," women shouldn't worry. This seems irresponsible to me.
david, that all depends on whether or not it's possible.
More hysteria from people with nothing better to do. The percentage women who supposedly developed clots is tiny, comparable to the tiny percentage of women killed by their spouses. Moreover, there is little proof that these clots are linked to the patch.
But, America loves hysteria, especially the women of American. So, don't use that patch, for the God's sake!
Iguana, America loves to be hysterical about its women having (shh!) sex. I do think that this warning is a good idea, especially with some interesting possible links between having a lot of estrogen in your body and some kinds of cancer. Still, they are also putting new warnings on condoms, to tell you that they're not effective if you don't use them right. Duh. This isn't science coming out of the FDA, it's Puritainism - stealth Puritainism. As a scientist, it makes me want to puke.
Vanessa,
"hormones from the patch go directly into the blood stream....In result, women die and suffer from blood clots at a rate three times higher than women on the pill."
Where did you get this statistic? I'm not aware of any study with a finding of increased risk, let alone one with a defined rate. [Frankly, I don't see how you could even conduct such a study, given the available data--for deaths, 17 cases/2yrs "appear" to be clot related, out of ~4 million users.]
yellownumber5,
"Still, they are also putting new warnings on condoms, to tell you that they're not effective if you don't use them right. Duh. This isn't science coming out of the FDA, it's Puritainism - stealth Puritainism."
You have no idea how right you are! I looked into the story a bit and, surprise, surprise, guess what's behind the FDA's move to change condom labels? A push to reclassify condoms from "performance standards" devices to "special controls" devices. As per the FDA, if the effort to reclassify condoms fails, they're not even bothering with the new label changes.
Ema, this is the study she's talking about:
http://feministing.com/archives/001631.html
Actually, there is quite a bit of information on the negative side effects of Ortho Evra. For instance, www.bewareofthepatch.com has links to several articles about Ortho. I don't think it is anything to screw around with, to be sure.