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Birth Control Patch Users...

Warning issued about birth-control patch

Quote:

AP) -- The makers of a popular birth-control patch warned millions of women Thursday that the patch exposes them to significantly higher doses of hormones and may put them at greater risk for blood clots and other serious side effects than previously disclosed.

The warning from Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Ortho McNeil, makers of Ortho Evra, says women using the patch will be exposed to about 60 percent more estrogen than those using typical birth-control pills because hormones from patches get into the bloodstream and are removed from the body differently than those from pills.

Thursday's warning comes four months after reports that patch users die and suffer blood clots at a rate three times higher than women taking the pill.

Citing federal death and injury reports, The Associated Press found that about a dozen women, most in their late teens and early 20s, died in 2004 from blood clots believed to be related to the birth-control patch, and dozens more survived strokes and other clot-related problems.

Ortho McNeil spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs said Thursday that the warning speaks for itself and that the company has been cooperating with the Food and Drug Administration, which distributed the new warning to health care providers.

More than 4 million women have used the patch since it went on sale in 2002. Several lawsuits have been filed by families of women who died or suffered blood clots while using the patch, and lawyers said more are planned.

Documents released to attorneys as a result of that litigation show Ortho McNeil has been analyzing the FDA's death and injury reports, creating its own charts that document a higher rate of blood clots and deaths in association with the patch than with the pill.

In addition, an internal Ortho McNeil memo shows that the company refused, in 2003, to fund a study comparing its Ortho Evra patch to its Ortho-Cyclen pill because of concerns there was "too high a chance that study may not produce a positive result for Evra" and there was a "risk that Ortho Evra may be the same or worse than Ortho-Cyclen."

Last week, in response to questions about the Ortho McNeil memo, company spokesman Michael Beckerich said in a written statement that "decisions to fund studies are based upon scientific merit."

Beckerich said Ortho McNeil is conducting its own epidemiological study "designed with input from the FDA and similar to those previously conducted with the Pill."

Although the patch and most birth-control pills contain the same amounts of estrogen, new published studies show that women using the patch absorb about 50 percent more estrogen than with the pill, said Dr. Leslie Miller, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington.

When women take the pill, the medication is absorbed into the bloodstream through the digestive tract. In the process, about half of the estrogen dose is lost.

Hormone levels in women on the pill are highest one or two hours after taking it, Miller said. Twelve hours later, estrogen levels are quite low, meaning the body is not exposed to high levels of estrogen 24 hours a day.

But the patch causes higher estrogen levels since delivery of medication continues all day. Those elevated levels may be high enough to increase some women's risk of blood clots, Miller said.

"If the patch is delivering too much estrogen, then it may need to be redesigned," Miller said. "Women should not just take off their patch; they risk pregnancy. If they are worried and want to change off the patch, they can wait to get something else."

Jennifer Cowperthwaite, 26, of Broad Brook, Connecticut, still suffers breathing problems after a blood clot reached her lungs two years ago while using the patch. She said the warnings were long overdue.

"I wish I had known," she said. "It's quite likely I would never have used it."

Erika Klein's sister Kathleen Thoren died a year ago from blood clots in her brain that the coroner said were brought on by Ortho Evra. She said women deserve to be informed when making birth-control decisions.

"Women have a right to know the true risks and make their decisions based on that information," she said. "No one should have to go through what my sister went through."

Now sure how many of y'all are users of the birth control patch, but this is good information for you to have..

EDIT: ABAYA POSTING HERE, not ktspktsp, yet again. Sorry mods, I am lame.

Wow, I used it for a year. Damn glad I got off it, I guess... I know the hormones made me sick every month.

Wonder if the Ring has any hidden effects?!

i use the patch and i love it becuase i dont rememeber to take a pill regularily. my lifestyle isnt regular whatsoever and this was somethign that woudl work for me. i am disappointed and frustrated to hear this news, however, i like knowing i absorb more hormones becuase ive always wondered if my skin would not allow the proper amount of hormones thus leading to a pregnancy. i guess i dont have to worry about that. that and it explains why my period takes so long to kick in on the patch in comparison to the pills.

Hum... Although the patch delivers more hormones, does it really mean that's what causes the blood clots? Women on the pill are also more prone to blood clots, espically if they smoke. I'm beginning to wonder if there's just a big clout about the patch because it's newer.

My uncle suffered from deep vein blood clots that went to his lungs, last summer. While at the hospital he was told that lots of people get these clots and never know because they don't have an issue. So, men and women alike get deep vein blood clots and never know, and never have complications. However, this does not mean they should be taken lightly.

I think the studies were showing that women on the patch were even more prone to blood clots than women on the pill.

I was on the pill for two months, experienced some pretty strange migrains and vision abnormalities, had my doctor tell me that I was experiencing tiny bloodclots in my brain and that I should switch to a lower dosage, and I decided that it wasn't worth it and have been using condoms ever since. I decided that my life wasn't worth the extra two percent effectiveness.

I find it rather frusterating that he medical community relies so heavily on something that puts women at risk for who knows what, while male birth control options go largely unused in America.

This is a pretty interesting article about the subject:

http://www.alternet.org/story/17432/.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jRuntlets

Actually, the problem with the patch is that the hormones are given directly into the bloodstream, unlike the pill, where they must be digested first, and lose a bit of their potency.

Also, with the pill, it's a once a day big shot of hormones, whereas the patch gives the same high amount of hormones all day long.