Originally published December 7 2005
Declining prescriptions reveal effects of FDA warning on birth control patch
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Wall Street Journal reports that prescriptions for Ortho Evra, a contraceptive skin patch, have declined since the FDA's recent warning that the patch exposes women to 60 percent more estrogen than birth control pills because of the way the chemicals from the patch are metabolized.
Many doctors have stopped writing prescriptions for a popular form of birth control after the Food and Drug Administration warned earlier this month of increased hormone exposure to women who use it.
More than 10 million prescriptions of the patch, which is made by Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical unit, were dispensed last year.
That is 21 percent more than the top-selling brand of birth-control pill, Berlex's Yasmin, according to IMS Health, a health-care information company in Fairfield, Conn.
But earlier this month, the FDA issued an announcement, requiring a new boldfaced warning on Ortho Evra's label that women who use the patch are exposed to about 60 percent more total estrogen than if they were taking a typical birth-control pill.
That is because hormones from skin patches get into the bloodstream and are metabolized differently than those from pills.
The FDA pointed out in its announcement that it still isn't known whether patch users are at greater risk for that.
In Memphis, Tenn., obstetrician and gynecologist Henry Sullivant says he has stopped writing new patch prescriptions and suggests that his roughly two dozen patch users try other forms of prescription contraceptives, such as the pill or a monthly vaginal ring.
Pennsylvania State University, which provides health services for 42,000 students, is no longer issuing prescriptions and says it is considering whether to contact all students who have been given prescriptions for Ortho Evra, even if they are no longer at the university.
Dr. Shulman and others say pulling patients off the patch is an overreaction, given that the FDA hasn't explicitly said that women are at greater risk for blood clots.
Estrogen-containing contraceptives slightly increase the risk of cardiovascular problems, including blood clots -- especially for women over 35 who smoke.
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