Birth control patch linked to higher fatality rate

[Martrae]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8565177/

[liquidstayce]

Great... and I was just about to call my dr today to see if she would put me on the patch!

[The Kizzy]

Damn it, I am on the patch.

[liquidstayce]

well it the article sort of contradicts itself if you read the whole thing - sounds like the jury is still out

[The Kizzy]

I brought up my concerns when my doctor prescribed this. She assured me there was nothing to worry about. I trust her. So I guess until they have more scientific proof, I will have to take her word for it.

[Darcler]

I dont know why, but I dont trust the patch. Call me crazy, but I dont trust something to keep me unpregnant through my skin.
I want something going directly into my body, like an injection or a pill. Since I suck at remembering pills, a shot it is (was).

[The Kizzy]

I suck at remembering pills too. That is why I was on the shot for so long, but it took away my periods, and I had massive weight gain. I have lost almost 70 pounds since getting off the Depo. If you think about it, your skin is absorbing the medication that is in the patch. Those little suckers hold like crazy, even after bathing, sweating, etc.

[Darcler]

I'm not on BC anymore. I was only one it for 3 months of my life. I just dont have vaginal sex until either Gid or I get the cut/cut.

Noone is going to convince me that the patch is insanely effective. No amount of study and charts and graphs.

I liked not having my period. It was one of my favorite parts of pregnancy, too.

[leah]

wait... so what kind of sex DO you have???

i am on ortho-cyclen and i like it because it made my severely weight loss-depleted boobs get a little bigger. ^_^

[Darcler]

Anal and oral, of course

The shot cleared my skin and I noticed no weight loss. I liked that shiz.

[leah]

lol really? you just never ever have regular sex??

i am perplexed!

[Trielelvan]

The article does not provide any empirical evidence whatsoever to give favor one way or the other as to whether or not the women died because of the patch or not.
It says absolutely nothing with regards to the lifestyles, habits, etc of the women who have, apparently, died or had complications due to the patch.
Did they smoke? Did they have diabetes? Did they never excercise? Were most over age 35?

Show me doubleblind case studies, thorough investigations, and autopsies after deaths occur, and then maybe I will believe that it's that much more dangerous than the pill (which, in my opinion, isn't all that safe anyway)

I wouldn't place too much stock in what the article is depicting. General news loves to "highlight" this kind of shit, especially when lawsuits are involved.

[Darcler]

lol really? you just never ever have regular sex??

i am perplexed!

We cant. We dont want to get pregnant this month, we dont like condoms and I dont want to go get on the pill or anything now because I would just have to get right back off it when we try (lol) for another kiddo.
SOOOO that leaves us with anal and oral for now.

It does suck. A lot. But it's what we have for now. I have had regular, good old fashioned "sex" in 9 months.

[The Kizzy]

Count your days. Use spercide KY, sponge, there are alot of different ways. Oral is much better anyway imo

[Darcler]

I've never counted days. My period is always like a little suprise every month.

As it is, with him working overnights and sleeping all day, we dont have that much real time together, so we get along fine without the sex. For now.

[The Kizzy]

BUT THEN COMES THE ORAL RIGHT?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Darcler]

Indeed.

[The Kizzy]

scha-weet!!!!!!!!

[Harrison]

This thread made me laugh.

My girlfriend is on the birth control that gives her 4 periods a year, yay.

[Martrae]

I'll just stick with my snipped hub and not having to worry about bc ever again thanx.

[liquidstayce]

ya.. i just saw that comercial for the 4 times a year period.. I WOULD LOVE THAT

I just wish so much I could get regulated. I think this is my 18th day of bleeding. I feel like I am losing my mind. I called my gyn and have an appt on the 14th. If it gets really bad she said go through the ER. Whatthefuckever. She should have seen me sooner. She needs to put me on the patch!!! I guess she is wanting to investigate to see if I have other crap going on. Bet you 10 to 1 she is going to want some sort of biopsy and make me do the D&C.

[Adivina]

The whole four periods a year birth control scares me. Nothing like letting that shit build up in your system for several months, somehow I just think it could be a health risk, I was told before the body still builds up its uterine lining, it just doesn't shed it each month when you are on that pill cycle. Perhaps it was wrong, but it sounds unhealthful to me.

I hate condoms too, good old birth control pill all the way for me.

[Martrae]

Warning Issued for Birth-Control Patch
By MARTHA MENDOZA
AP National Writer

The Food and Drug Administration warned users of the popular Ortho Evra birth control patch that they are being exposed to more hormones, and are therefore at higher risk of blood clots and other serious side effects, than previously disclosed.

Until now, regulators and patch-maker Ortho McNeil, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary, had maintained the patch was expected to be associated with similar risks as the pill. But a strongly worded warning was added to the patch label Thursday that says women using the patch will be exposed to about 60 percent more estrogen than those using typical birth control pills.

"I wish I had known. It's quite likely I would never have used it," said Jennifer Cowperthwaite, 26, of Broad Brook, Conn., who still suffers breathing problems after a blood clot reached her lungs two years ago after using the patch.

Although most pills and the patch are loaded with the same amount of estrogen, hormones from patches go directly into the bloodstream while pills are swallowed and digested first. The result is that women using the patch have much higher levels of estrogen in their bodies.

Thursday's warning comes four months after The Associated Press reported 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 AP also 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 the warning speaks for itself and that the company has been cooperating with the FDA, 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 AP 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."

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."

Even before the warning, some advocacy groups and medical providers were raising questions about the patch.

In September, Public Citizen's Health Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization, added Ortho Evra to its ongoing list of dangerous medicines, warning that there is "no medical reason for women to use the more dangerous Ortho Evra rather than one of the older, better understood, and equally effective oral contraceptives."

And last month, Dr. Miguel Cano, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Reedley, Calif., sent a note to several thousand women patients recommending that they stop using the patch and that they come in for appointments to get a new form of birth control.

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."